Greek Ethics, Part I Socrates vs' the Sophists

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Greek Ethics, Part ISocrates vs. the Sophists
socrates
Protagoras, a sophist
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Greek Ethics, Part ISocrates vs. the Sophists

• HISTORICAL CONTEXT
• Athens
• 5th century BC (the 400s BC)
• Athenian empire, democracy, the Peloponnesian War

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Greek Ethics, Part ISocrates vs. the Sophists

• PROTAGORAS OF ABDERA
• A leading Sophist
• Sophists
• Were traveling teachers of rhetoric
• Charged for their services
• Did not follow a specific school, but shared
  similar beliefs

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Greek Ethics, Part ISocrates vs. the Sophists

• Taught pupils how to use the power of persuasive
  speech
• Practiced making the weaker argument seem like
  the stronger
• Goal to teach pupils how to become powerful
• Criticized for making all issues a word war.

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Greek Ethics, Part ISocrates vs. the Sophists

• Sophistry - the practice of using words to
  deceive
• From sophos (Greek for wisdom)
• Sophisticated
• Philosophy
• Sophomore
• Hagia Sophia

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Greek Ethics, Part ISocrates vs. the Sophists

• SOPHIST BELIEFS
• MIGHT MAKES RIGHT
• The man who can control communication and law is
  the most powerful.
• The most powerful person makes the laws and so
  decides what is just.
• Justice and right and wrong are whatever those in
  power say they are, nothing more.

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Greek Ethics, Part ISocrates vs. the Sophists

• SOPHIST BELIEFS
• MAN IS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS.
• Individual measures all things by his own
  standard
• Truth about right and wrong is relative to the
  individual
• Relativism truth is whatever the
  individual/society thinks it is

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Greek Ethics, Part ISocrates vs. the Sophists
Relativism - The belief that truth is relative to
the individual or his culture I hold that
whatever practices seem right and praiseworthy to
any particular state are so, for that state, so
long as it holds by them Theatetus,
167c Classic expression of cultural relativism
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Greek Ethics, Part ISocrates vs. the Sophists

• SOCRATES OF ATHENS
• Ideas written down by student, Plato
• Taught by asking and answering questions,
  dialectic
• Called the gadfly
• Called himself a midwife of ideas

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Greek Ethics, Part ISocrates vs. the Sophists

• Accused of denying the gods, corrupting the youth
• Sentenced to die by drinking hemlock
• Refused to escape when he had the chance

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Greek Ethics, Part ISocrates vs. the Sophists

• SOCRATES BELIEFS
• THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING.
• Taught that people should evaluate their lives to
  discover truth, virtue.
• The goal of human life is to find the good
  life.
• Believed that truth, virtue, excellence, justice
  actually existed, and could be discovered by
  humans.

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Greek Ethics, Part ISocrates vs. the Sophists
absolutism - the belief that THERE IS A standard
of truth is applicable to everyone, everywhere
Socrates Does the absolute reality which we
define in our discussions remain always constant
or variable, or does it not?Doesnt each one of
these uniform and independent entities always
remain constant and invariable, never admitting
change in any sense. Phaedo, 78d, Platos
Dialogues