# The Sophists Philosophy I · Ancient Philosophy: From the Milesians to Plato · https://tryals.app/learn/philosophy-i/the-sophists ## Teaching Excellence for a Fee In fifth-century Athens, democratic politics made public speaking the route to influence. The **Sophists** were itinerant professional teachers who met the demand, offering instruction in **rhetoric**, argument and practical excellence, and charging for it. Two things about them scandalised. Charging fees was thought to demean wisdom, and their subject was not nature but **human affairs**: law, convention, persuasion, politics. Their central distinction is **nomos** and **physis**: convention against nature. Which of our arrangements are natural and inevitable, and which are merely human agreements that could have been otherwise? Once asked, the question does not go away, and it is the origin of social and political philosophy. **Protagoras** gave the famous formulation: "Man is the measure of all things, of things that are, that they are, and of things that are not, that they are not." Read strongly, this is **relativism**: truth is relative to the perceiver, and if the wind seems cold to me and warm to you, it *is* cold for me and warm for you. He also professed agnosticism about the gods, and claimed to teach both sides of any question, which is either intellectual honesty or the abandonment of truth, depending on your view. **Gorgias** pushed further in a work arguing three theses in sequence: nothing exists; if anything existed it could not be known; if it could be known it could not be communicated. Whether this is serious philosophy or a demonstration of rhetorical power is still debated, and that ambiguity is itself characteristic. The reputation is partly deserved and partly Plato's doing. Some Sophists genuinely taught that the stronger argument could be made to appear the weaker regardless of truth, which is what "sophistry" now means. But Plato had a specific reason to attack them: Socrates looked *exactly* like a Sophist — arguing in public, questioning conventions, gathering young followers — and was executed partly on that account. Distinguishing his teacher from them was an urgent task, not a neutral one. The permanent contributions are real: the turn to human affairs, the nomos/physis distinction, systematic attention to language and argument, and the demand that convention justify itself. > **Common pitfall:** taking Plato's portrait at face value. He is a hostile witness with a strong motive, and the Sophists' own writings largely do not survive. What we call sophistry may be Plato's characterisation more than their practice. ## Practice questions 8 of this lesson's 11 practice questions, with answers. The full set is in the app. ### 1. Why does Plato have a particular motive to distinguish Socrates sharply from the Sophists? A. Plato ran his Academy for profit and needed to justify charging tuition fees B. The Sophists had successfully refuted Socrates during their famous public debates C. Socrates resembled them closely and was executed partly on that resemblance D. Plato had originally trained under Gorgias and sought to hide his intellectual debt **Answer:** C. Socrates resembled them closely and was executed partly on that resemblance **Why:** To an ordinary Athenian, Socrates was indistinguishable from a Sophist, and that resemblance contributed to his execution. Plato’s task of separating them was urgent and personal, which is why he is a hostile rather than neutral witness. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/the-sophists/why-does-plato-have-a-particular-motive-to-distinguish-socrates ### 2. Sort each arrangement by whether the Sophists would classify it as nomos or physis. **Answer:** - Nomos, human convention: The laws of a particular city, Which people are considered noble, Customs of dress and diet - Physis, nature: That human beings need food and water, That heavy things fall **Why:** The test is variability: what differs between cities is convention, what holds everywhere is nature. Applying it to social hierarchy was genuinely subversive, since it implies the arrangement could have been otherwise. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/the-sophists/sort-each-arrangement-by-whether-the-sophists-would-classify-it-as ### 3. Which are genuine contributions of the Sophists? A. Systematic attention to language and argument B. The turn of philosophical attention to human affairs C. Asking which of our arrangements could have been otherwise D. The first mathematical proof of an impossibility **Answer:** A. Systematic attention to language and argument; B. The turn of philosophical attention to human affairs; C. Asking which of our arrangements could have been otherwise **Why:** The nomos/physis distinction, the turn to human affairs and the study of argument are all theirs and all permanent. The impossibility proof is Pythagorean and belongs to a quite different tradition. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/the-sophists/which-are-genuine-contributions-of-the-sophists ### 4. Protagoras’ claim that man is the measure of all things is compatible, on its strong reading, with there being one objective fact about how cold the wind is. **Answer:** False **Why:** False, on the strong reading there is no fact about the wind beyond how it strikes each perceiver. Whether Protagoras intended that reading is disputed, but it is the one Plato attacks and the one the phrase has carried ever since. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/the-sophists/protagoras-claim-that-man-is-the-measure-of-all-things-is ### 5. Match each Sophist or term to what it is associated with. **Answer:** - Protagoras → Man is the measure of all things - Gorgias → Three theses culminating in incommunicability - Nomos → Human convention, which could have been otherwise - Physis → Nature, which holds regardless of agreement **Why:** The two named figures and the two terms together make up the Sophistic contribution: a relativist thesis, a rhetorical tour de force, and the distinction that founded political philosophy. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/the-sophists/match-each-sophist-or-term-to-what-it-is-associated-with ### 6. Arrange these steps in the reasoning that made the Sophists influential in Athens. **Answer:** 1. Democratic institutions make public speaking the route to influence 2. Wealthy citizens seek training in persuasion 3. Itinerant teachers arrive offering that training for fees 4. Their subject shifts philosophy from nature to human affairs 5. The distinction between convention and nature becomes central **Why:** The intellectual shift has a political cause: democracy made persuasion valuable, which created a market, which brought teachers whose subject matter changed what philosophy was about. Institutions shaped the questions. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/the-sophists/arrange-these-steps-in-the-reasoning-that-made-the-sophists ### 7. The Sophists shifted philosophical inquiry from physis (nature) to nomos (human convention). What follows from opening political arrangements to this distinction? A. They are proved to be illegitimate because they lack natural basis B. They are revealed as human choices capable of being revised C. They are shown to be fixed once a community agrees upon them D. They must be abandoned in favour of purely natural behaviours **Answer:** B. They are revealed as human choices capable of being revised **Why:** Treating social customs as nomos does not automatically invalidate them or demand a return to nature; it simply strips them of cosmic inevitability. Because human agreements could have been otherwise, they are subject to critique, justification, and reform. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/the-sophists/the-sophists-shifted-philosophical-inquiry-from-physis-nature-to ### 8. Complete the account of the Sophists’ central distinction. **Answer:** The Sophists distinguished **nomos**, which is human convention and could have been otherwise, from **physis**, which holds regardless of any agreement. Applying the distinction to social arrangements was **subversive**, because it implied that hierarchies people took to be natural were merely **agreed**. **Why:** The distinction is analytically simple and politically explosive: if a hierarchy is convention rather than nature, it stands in need of justification and could be changed. That is the birth of political philosophy. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/the-sophists/complete-the-account-of-the-sophists-central-distinction