Ancient Greek Sophists: Rhetoric, Skepticism, and Key Philosophical Concepts

The Sophists: Rhetoric, Arete, and Fifth-Century Athens

The Sophists were itinerant professional teachers and intellectuals who frequented Athens and other Greek cities in the second half of the fifth century BC.

Sophistic Education and the Concept of Arete

In return for a fee, the Sophists offered young wealthy Greek men an education in arete (excellence).

Initially, arete was predominantly associated with aristocratic warrior virtues such as courage and physical strength. However, arete was increasingly understood in terms of the ability to influence one's fellow citizens in political gatherings through rhetorical persuasion.

The Sophistic education both grew out of and exploited this shift. The Sophists answered a growing need among the young and ambitious.

Meno says that the arete of man is to rule over people—that is, manage his public affairs so as to benefit his friends and harm enemies. This is a long-standing ideal, but one best achievable in democratic Athens through rhetoric.

Key Figures and Philosophical Attitude

The most representative figures of the Sophistic movement are Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias, and Prodicus.

The Sophists had certain definite points in common, the most relevant of which was a shared philosophical attitude: a common skepticism.

This skepticism was a natural result of the impasse to which natural philosophy seemed to have come.

Knowledge depends on two things:

• The possession of faculties capable of bringing us into touch with reality.
• The existence of reality to be known.

Core Philosophical Concepts and Definitions

Realism

The belief that reality is ontologically independent of our conceptual schemes, linguistic practices, etc. In epistemology, realism is the view that we directly perceive the world as it is, or things in themselves, through our senses.

Anthropological Dualism

The view that man is made up of two components: a material, physical body, and an immaterial soul or spirit.

Determinism

The theory that all events, including human and social choices and actions, are completely determined by previously existing causes.

Dogmatism

The tendency to lay down principles as undeniably true, without consideration of evidence or the opinions of others.

Intellective (Aristotelian Physics)

A kind of soul responsive for thought, reflection, and deliberation in Aristotle's physics. Present alongside vegetative and sensitive souls in humans.

Res Cogitans (Cartesian Philosophy)

One of three substances described by Descartes alongside res extensa and res infinita. Denotes consciousness, whose primary attribute is thinking.