This is taken from Western Civilization: The Continuing Experiment by Noble, Strauss, Osheim, Neushel, Cohen, Roberts, and Hecht.
"Protagoras (b. ca. 485 B.C.), perhaps the best-known Sophist, summed up the spirit of the age in his famous dictum 'Man is the measure of all things.' In other words, human beings create the appropriate truth for a given situation--there are no absolute truths. Because they taught respect for success over truth, the Sophists acquired a reputation as word-twisters. Sophist became a term of abuse in Athens and remains so today."
This reminds me of some politicians.
The Sophists were also responsible for Socrates' execution.
This is what some like to think Protagoras looked like:
1 comment:
Hi John,
On a similar vein: I know that Aristotle and Plato both were also reacting against forms of relativism in their time.
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