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Protagoras [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
 Protagoras (c. 490 - c. 420 BCE) Protagoras of Abdera was one of several fifth century Greek thinkers
(including also Gorgias, Hippias, and Prodicus) collectively known as
the Older Sophists, a group of traveling teachers or intellectuals
who were experts in rhetoric (the science of oratory) and related
subjects. Protagoras is known primarily for three claims (1) that man
is the measure of all things (which is often interpreted as a sort of
radical relativism) (2) that he could make the "worse (or weaker)
argument appear the better (or stronger)" and (3) that one could not
tell if the gods existed or not. While some ancient sources claim
that these positions led to his having been tried for impiety in
Athens and his books burned, these stories may well have been later
legends. Protagoras' notion that judgments and knowledge are in some
way relative to the person judging or knowing has been very
influential, and is still widely discussed in contemporary
philosophy.Table of Contents (Clicking on the links below will take you to those parts of this article)1. Life
2. Career
3. Doctrines
a. Orthoepeia
b. Man-Measure Statement
c. Agnosticism
4. Social Consequences and Immediate Followers
5. Influence
6. Bibliography1. Life
Surprising little is known of Protagoras' life with any certainty.
Our main sources of information concerning Protagoras are:
Plato (427-347 BCE): Protagoras is a leading character in
Plato's dialogue Protagoras and Protagoras' doctrines are
discussed extensively in Plato's Theaetetus. Plato's
dialogues, however, are a mixture of historical account and artistic
license, much in the manner of the comic plays of the period.
Moreover, Protagoras died when Plato was quite young and Plato may
have depended on not entirely reliable second-hand evidence for his
understanding of Protagoras.
Diogenes
Laertius (third century CE): Diogenes' Lives of the
Philosophers is probably our single most extensive source for
many early Greek philosophers' works and biographies. Unfortunately,
his work was compiled over six hundred years after Protagoras' death
and is an uncritical compilation of materials from a wide variety of
sources, some reliable, some not, and many hopelessly garbled
Sextus
Empiricus (fl. late 2nd century CE): Sextus
Empiricus was a skeptic of the Pyrrhonian school. Sextus wrote several books
criticizing the dogmatists (non-skeptics). His treatment of
Protagoras is somewhat favorable, but since his purpose is to prove
the superiority of Pyrrhonism to all other philosophies,we cannot
trust him to be "objective" in a modern sense; moreover, like
Diogenes, he wrote several hundred years after Protagoras' death and
may not have had completely reliable sources.
The first step in understanding Protagoras is to define the general
category of "sophist," a term often applied to Protagoras in
antiquity. In the fifth century, the term referred mainly to people
who were known for their knowledge (e.g. Socrates, the seven sages)
and those who earned money by teaching advanced pupils (e.g.
Protagoras, Prodicus) and seemed to be a somewhat neutral term,
although sometimes used with pejorative overtones by those who
disapproved of the new ideas of the so-called "Sophistic
Enlightenment". By the fourth century the term becomes more
specialized, limited to those who taught rhetoric, specifically the
ability to speak in assemblies or law courts. Because sophistic
skills could promote injustice (demagoguery in assemblies, winning
unjust lawsuits) as well as justice (persuading the polis to act
correctly, allowing the underprivileged to win justice for
themselves), the term "sophist" gradually acquired the negative
connotation of cleverness not restrained by ethics. Conventionally,
the term "Older Sophist" is restricted to a small number of figures
known from the Platonic dialogues (Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus,
Hippias, Euthydemus, Thrasymachus and sometimes others). Whether
these figures actually had some common body of doctrines is
uncertain. At times scholars have tended to lump them together in a
group, and attribute to them all a combination of religious
skepticism, skill in argument, epistemological and moral relativism,
and a certain degree of intellectual unscrupulousness. These
characteristics, though, were probably more typical of their fourth
century followers than of the Older Sophists themselves, who tended
to agree with and follow generally accepted moral codes, even while
their more abstract speculations undermined the epistemological
foundations of traditional morality.
When we separate Protagoras from general portraits of "sophistic", as
most scholars (e.g. the ones listed below in the bibliography)
recommend, our information about him is relatively sparse. He was
born in approximately 490 B. C. E. in the town of Abdera in Thrace
and died c. 420 B. C. E. (place unknown). He traveled around Greece
earning his living primarily as a teacher and perhaps advisor and
lived in Athens for several years, where he associated with Pericles
and other rich and influential Athenians. Pericles invited him to
write the constitution for the newly founded Athenian colony of
Thurii in 444 B. C. E. Many later legends developed around the life
of Protagoras which are probably false, including stories concerning
his having studied with Democritus, his trial for impiety, the
burning of his books, and his flight from Athens.
Back to Table of Contents2. Career
If our knowledge of Protagoras' life is sparse, our knowledge of
his career is vague. Protagoras was probably the first Greek to earn
money in higher education and he was notorious for the extremely high
fees he charged. His teaching included such general areas as public
speaking, criticism of poetry, citizenship, and grammar. His teaching
methods seemed to consist primarily of lectures, including model
orations, analyses of poems, discussions of the meanings and correct
uses of words, and general rules of oratory. His audience consisted
mainly of wealthy men, from Athens' social and commercial elites. The
reason for his popularity among this class had to do with specific
characteristics of the Athenian legal system.
Athens was an extremely litigious society. Not only were various
political and personal rivalries normally carried forward by
lawsuits, but one special sort of taxation, know as "liturgies" could
result in a procedure known as an "antidosis" (exchange). A liturgy
was a public expense (such as providinga ship for the navy or
supporting a religious festival) assigned to one of the richest men
of the community. If a man thought he had been assigned the liturgy
unfairly, because there was a richer man able to undertake it, he
could bring a lawsuit either to exchange his property with the other
man's or to shift the burden of the liturgy to the richer man. Since
Athenians had to represent themselves in court rather than hiring
lawyers, it was essential that rich men learn to speak well in order
to defend their property; if they could not do so, they would be at
the mercy of anyone who wanted to extort money from them. While this
made the teachings of Protagoras extremely valuable, it also led a
certain conservative faction (e.g. the comic playwright Aristophanes)
to distrust him, in the same way that people now might distrust a
slick lawyer.
Back to Table of Contents3. Doctrines
Protagoras' doctrines can be divided into three groups:
Orthoepeia: the study of the correct use of words
Man-measure statement: the notion that knowledge is
relative to the knower
Agnosticism: the claim that we cannot know anything about the gods
Back to Table of Contentsa. Orthoepeia
Perhaps because the practical side of his teaching was concerned
with helping students learn to speak well in the courtroom,
Protagoras was interested in "orthoepeia" (the correct use of words).
Later sources describe him as one of the first to write on grammar
(in the modern sense of syntax) and he seems interested in the
correct meaning of words, a specialty often associated with another
sophist, Prodicus, as well. In the Protagoras, the Platonic dialogue
named after the famous sophist which has both Protagoras and Prodicus
as participants, Protagoras is shown interpreting a poem of
Simonides, with special concern for the issue of the relationship
between the writer's intent and the literal meanings of the words.
This method of interpretation was one which would be especially
useful in interpreting laws and other written witnesses (contracts,
wills, etc.) in the courtroom. Unfortunately, we don't have any
actual writings by Protagoras on the topic.
Back to Table of Contentsb. Man-Measure Statement
Of the book titles we have attributed to Protagoras, only two,
"Truth" (or "Refutations") and "On the Gods" are probably accurate.
Of Protagoras' works, only a few brief quotations embedded in the
works of later authors have survived. (The quotations of and reports
about Protagoras below are referred to by their 'Diels-Kranz,' or
'DK' number, the usual way of referring to such fragments and
testimonia. The Diels-Kranz numbering system is explained here.) Of
Protagoras' ipsissima verba (actual words, as opposed to
paraphrases), the most famous is the homo-mensura (man-measure)
statement (DK80b1): "Of all things the measure is man, of the things
that are, that [or "how"] they are, and of things that are not, that
[or "how"] they are not." This precise meaning of this statement,
like that of any short extract taken out of context, is far from
obvious, although the long discussion of it in Plato's
Theaetetus gives us some sense of how ancient Greek audiences
interpreted it. The test case normally used is temperature. If Ms. X.
says "it is hot," then the statement (unless she is lying) is true
for her. Another person, Ms. Y, may simultaneously claim "it is
cold." This statement could also be true for her. If Ms. X normally
lives in Alaska and Ms. Y in Florida, the same temperature (e. g. 25
Celsius) may seem hot to one and cool to the other. The measure of
hotness or coldness is fairly obviously the individual person. One
cannot legitimately tell Ms. X she does not feel hot -- she is the
only person who can accurately report her own perceptions or
sensations. In this case, it is indeed impossible to contradict as
Protagoras is held to have said (DK80a19). But what if Ms. Y, in
claiming it feels cold, suggests that unless the heat is turned on
the pipes will freeze? One might suspect that she has a fever and her
judgment is unreliable; the measure may still be the individual
person, but it is an unreliable one, like a broken ruler or
unbalanced scale. In a modern scientific culture, with a predilection
for scientific solutions, we would think of consulting a thermometer
to determine the objective truth. The Greek response was to look at
the more profound philosophical implications.
Even if the case of whether the pipes will freeze can be solved
trivially, the problem of it being simultaneously hot and cold to two
women remains interesting. If this cannot be resolved by determining
that one has a fever, we are presented with evidence that judgments
about qualities are subjective. If this is the case though, it has
alarming consequences. Abstractions like truth, beauty, justice, and
virtue are also qualities and it would seem that Protagoras' dictum
would lead us to conclude that they too are relative to the
individual observer, a conclusion which many conservative Athenians
found alarming because of its potential social consequences. If good
and bad are merely what seem good and bad to the individual observer,
then how can one claim that stealing or adultery or impiety or murder
are somehow wrong? Moreover, if something can seem both hot and cold
(or good and bad) then both claims, that the thing is hot and that
the thing is cold, can be argued for equally well. If adultery is
both good and bad (good for one person and bad for another), then one
can construct equally valid arguments for and against adultery in
general or an individual adulterer. What will make a case triumph in
court is not some inherent worth of one side, but the persuasive
artistry of the orator. And so, Protagoras claims he is able to "make
the worse case the better" (DK80b6). The oratorical skills Protagoras
taught thus had potential for promoting what most Athenians
considered injustice or immorality.
Back to Table of Contentsc. Agnosticism
While the pious might wish to look to the gods to provide absolute
moral guidance in the relativistic universe of the Sophistic
Enlightenment, that certainty also was cast into doubt by philosophic
and sophistic thinkers, who pointed out the absurdity and immorality
of the conventional epic accounts of the gods. Protagoras' prose
treatise about the gods began "Concerning the gods, I have no means
of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be.
Many things prevent knowledge including the obscurity of the subject
and the brevity of human life." (DK80b4)
Back to Table of Contents4. Social Consequences and Immediate Followers
As a consequence of Protagoras' agnosticism and relativism, he may
have considered that laws (legislative and judicial) were things
which evolved gradually by agreement (brought about by debate in
democratic assemblies) and thus could be changed by further debate.
This position would imply that there was a difference between the
laws of nature and the customs of humans. Although Protagoras himself
seemed to respect, and even revere the customs of human justice (as a
great achievement), some of the younger followers of Protagoras and
the other Older Sophists concluded that the arbitrary nature of human
laws and customs implies that they can be ignored at will, a position
that was held to be one of the causes of the notorious amorality of
such figures as Alcibiades.
Protagoras himself was a fairly traditional and upright moralist. He
may have viewed his form of relativism as essentially democratic --
allowing people to revise unjust or obsolete laws, defend themselves
in court, free themselves from false certainties -- but he may
equally well have considered rhetoric a way in which the elite could
counter the tendencies towards mass rule in the assemblies. Our
evidence on this matter is unfortunately minimal.
The consequences of the radical skepticism of the sophistic
enlightenment appeared, at least to Plato and Aristophanes, among
others, as far from benign. In Aristophanes' play, the Clouds,
a teacher of rhetoric (called Socrates, but with doctrines based to a
great degree on those of the Sophists, and possibly directed
specifically at Protagoras or his followers) teaches that the gods
don't exist, moral values are not fixed, and how to make the weaker
argument appear the stronger. The result is moral chaos -- the main
characters (Strepsiades and his son Pheidippides) in Clouds
are portrayed as learning clever tricks to enable them to cheat their
creditors and eventually abandoning all sense of conventional
morality (illustrated by Pheidippides beating his father on stage and
threatening to beat his mother). Although no one accused Protagoras
himself of being anything other than honest -- even Plato, who
disapproved of his philosophical positions, portrays him as generous,
courteous, and upright -- his techniques were adopted by various
unscrupulous characters in the following generation, giving sophistry
the bad name it still has for clever (but fallacious) verbal trickery.
Back to Table of Contents5. Influence
Protagoras' influence on the history of philosophy has been
significant. Historically, it was in response to Protagoras and his
fellow sophists that Plato began the search for transcendent forms or
knowledge which could somehow anchor moral judgment. Along with the
other Older Sophists and Socrates, Protagoras was part of a shift in
philosophical focus from the earlier Presocratic tradition of natural
philosophy to an interest in human philosophy. He emphasized how
human subjectivity determines the way we understand, or even
construct, our world, a position which is still an essential part of
the modern philosophic tradition.
Back to Table of Contents6. Bibliography
Primary sources
Aristophanes. Clouds. Intro. and trans. by Carol Poster.
In Aristophanes 3, ed. David Slavitt and Palmer Bovie.
Philadelphia PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999: 85-192.
Diels, Hermann. Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. Rev. Walther
Kranz. Berlin: Weidmann, 1972-1973.
Diogenes
Laertius. Lives Of Eminent Philosophers. Trans. R. D.
Hicks. 2 vols. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1959.
Plato. Plato II: Laches, Protagoras, Meno, Euthydemus. Trans.
W. R. M. Lamb. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.
---. Plato VII: Theaetetus, Sophist. Trans. H. N. Fowler.
Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1925.
Sextus
Empiricus. Sextus
Empiricus. Trans. R. G. Bury. 4 vols. Cambridge MA: Harvard
University Press, 1953-59.
Sprague, Rosamund Kent, ed. The Older Sophists: A Complete
Translation by Several Hands. Columbia SC: University of South
Carolina Press, 1972.
Secondary sources
Guthrie, W. K. C. The Sophists. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1971
de Romilly, Jaqueline. The Great Sophists In Periclean Athens.
Trans. Janet Lloyd. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1992.
Kennedy, George. The Art Of Persuasion In Greece. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1963.
Kerferd, G. B. The Sophistic Movement. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1981.
Rankin, H. D. Sophists, Socratics & Cynics. London: Croom Helm, 1983.
Schiappa, Edward. Protagoras and Logos. Columbia SC:
University. of South Carolina Press 1991.
Back to Table of Contents Author Information: Carol Poster Email: |
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