Protagoras and Logos: A Study in Greek Philosophy and Rhetoric

1 WHY A STUDY OF PROTAGORAS?

1 WHY A STUDY OF PROTAGORAS? An important part of comprehending the place of Protagoras, the first and most influential of the Older Sophists, is understanding how the profession he helped to spawn was perceived in ancient Greek thought and in subsequent histories of thought. So many of the issues concerning the Sophists are shrouded in controversy that it is difficult even to begin to describe who the Sophists were, let alone to discuss the content and significance of their work. My purpose in what follows is to summarize how the meaning of the word "sophist" has undergone successive redefinition by ancient and contemporary philosophers. Such a summary is appropriate since the term currently suffers from distinctly pejorative connotations, despite the fact that it originally was considered honorific. Understanding why such a transformation has taken place sheds light on how to interpret the role of the Sophists in their own time and explains the disparate treatment the Sophists have often received at the hands of historians and philosophers. DEFINING "SOPHIST" The word "sophist" has been defined in important ways by ancient and modern writers. These definitions have altered the interpretive frameworks within which Sophists have been studied and understood. To comprehend scholarship concerning the Sophists in general, and Pro3 Early Greek Rhetorical Theory tagoras in particular, one must be able to place that scholarship in its proper context and interpretive tradition.1 The most familiar definition of "sophist" is pejorative: "one who makes use of fallacious arguments; a specious reasoner." This sense of "sophist" is clearly the sense that enjoys the most popular use, as almost any pocket dictionary will show. This negative sense of "sophist" is what guided the initial construction of such pejorative terms as "sophisms ," or "sophistical" arguments. The oldest and broadest definition of the word is "one who is distinguished for learning; a wise or learned man."2 This definition has roots in the Greek term sophia, meaning wisdom or skill. Accordingly, as George Grote and G. B. Kerferd have pointed out, a wide variety of people in ancient Greece were called Sophists, including poets, musicians, rhapsodes, diviners, and persons now called philosophers.3 Even Socrates and Plato were called Sophists (Aristophanes, Clouds; !socrates, Against the Sophists). Protagoras, in the Platonic dialogue of the same name, claims that Sophists have a long-standing tradition, and he names as his predecessors the poets and prophets of the past, including Homer, Hesiod, Simonides, Orpheus, and Musaeus (316d). Protagoras went on to claim that current teachers of music and physical training also practice the "sophist's art" (316e). It is clear then that the broadest notion of "sophist" would include almost anyone who demonstrates and imparts wisdom (sophia). Beginning in the mid-fifth century BeE, the word "sophist" began to take on narrower and more technical meanings. The definition listed first in the Oxford English Dictionary describes a Sophist as "one specially engaged in the pursuit or communication of knowledge; esp. one who undertook to give instruction in intellectual and ethical matters in return for payment." So conceived, the Sophists were the first professional teachers in Western history. Missing from this definition is any reference to the practice and teaching of rhetoric, which, for Heinrich Gomperz, was the distinguishing characteristic of the Sophists.4 Gomperz exaggerated a point that was otherwise well taken. Virtually every person considered a Sophist by posterity was concerned with instruction in logos. According to most accounts, the teaching of the skills of public argument was the key to the Sophists' financial success,5 and a good part of the reason for their condemnation by Plato. Where did the modern negative definition of "sophist" originate? Karl Popper claimed that Plato "by his attacks on the 'Sophists' created the bad associations connected with the word."6 Grote claimed that Plato "stole the name out of general circulation" and connected with it "dis4 Why a Study of Protagoras? creditable attributes."7 W. K. C. Guthrie opposed that view, claiming that the term already possessed negative connotations in pre-Platonic writings such as Aristophanes' Clouds.8 Eric A. Havelock has offered the most plausible explanation: prior to Plato, the term "sophist" could be given either a respectful or a contemptuous meaning, not unlike the word "intellectual" today. The playwrights of the "Old Comedy" of Plato's youth played upon, and perhaps fostered, an anti-intellectual prejudice in the populace which helped to diminish the respectability of...