Sophists

Sophists Avi I. Mintz The final version of this article is published in The Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory, ed. D.C. Phillips (SAGE, 2014), pp. 777-779. In fifth century BCE Greece, there emerged a new class of teachers, the first generation of sophists, including, Protagoras of Abdera, Gorgias of Leontini, Hippias of Elis, Prodicus of Ceos, and others. They are so eti es alled the olde sophists to disti guish these pioneers from those who would later lay claim to the title beginning in the fourth century. The sophists hailed from different regions of Greece, had a variety of intellectual interests, and diverse curricula for their students. But they were united in that they believed that they possessed specialized expertise in teaching, and offered an education that promised to help students reach new intellectual and social heights. Because they subjected religious, political, and social customs, to scrutiny, some Greeks branded them subversive and harmful to both the youth and the society in general. At the same time, however, some Greeks welcomed them, including Pericles, the great Athenian statesman. The sophists’ celebration of the value and power of learning, their intellectual advances, and their innovations in pedagogy and curriculum, were so profound that it is difficult to overstate their importance to Western educational theory and practice. The sophists arose in response, at least in part, to two cultural shifts in Greece. First, the sixth and fifth centuries featured a flourishing of intellectual activity. There were advances in science, literature, philosophy, mathematics and a variety of other fields. Prior to the sophists, formal Greek education was li ited to hat ould o e alled ele e ta y edu atio , probably ending around the time of puberty, and involving only reading, writing, mathematics, music, and physical education. Many young men, however, wanted to learn about the new intellectual developments of their day and a market emerged to satisfy them. Sophists began to travel to various cities – especially Athens, where the thirst for learning became a defining characteristic of the population – offering lessons to young men who sought them. Second, the advent of democracy in Athens resulted in the demand for a particular, new set of skills. Political and social prominence was no longer limited to the descendants of the king, nor to an aristocratic class. Social mobility became a possibility for a far greater number of individuals. Indeed, at least in theory, any citizen who could persuade others during collective deliberations could play a prominent role the ity’s leade ship a d e o e pa t of the ity’s elite. In addition, Athenian justice depended on private individuals prosecuting others – there was no public office of legal representatives in Athens. Any Athenian citizen could attempt to make a name for himself by prosecuting another citizen. Many sophists recognized that persuasive public speaking could be improved with technique and practice. They therefore developed and offered lessons in oratory that were enthusiastically sought by young men. To whatever extent the sophists tapped into a nascent desire for political and social advancement, on the one hand, or a thirst for learning, on the other, the sophists enabled these desires to flourish – they both served the market and enlarged it. It was only a brief historical jump from these itinerant teachers who met in marketplaces, gymnasia, or were hosted in the ho es of the ealthy, to thei stude ts’ generation who, in the early fourth century, established the first schools of higher education, as they would be called today. In the late 390s, Isocrates, whom the oratorical tradition places as a student of Gorgias, opened his school. Plato, whose deep engagement with the sophists’ thought is attested throughout his dialogues, opened the Academy about five years later. As a class of teachers seeking out and competing for students, the sophists developed particularly engaging promotional displays. The sophists offered public lectures conveying innovations in speech composition or content, offering a sample of the intellectual and/or oratorical prowess that students might acquire. These displays sometimes involved a particularly moving retelling of a moral tale – such as P odi us’ sto y a out He a les’ decision to choose the difficult path to virtue rather than the alluring, easy path to vice, and Hippias’ spee h a out Nesto ’s ad i e o the o le pu suits fo the young – or they might argue a counterintuitive or countercultural idea – such as Gorgias’ Encomium to Helen, in which he dazzled his Athenian audience with his novel prose style as much as his defense of Helen. In addition to speeches, a display might involve fielding questions with clever, erudite and otherwise impressive responses. Students who attended the sophists’ regular lessons might have listened to lectures, recited speeches, or engaged in the analysis of both the form and content of poetry or speeches. Some sophists would uestio thei stude ts; i deed, Dioge es Lae tius edits the i e tio of “o ati uestio i g not to Socrates but to Protagoras. Others provided lessons in debate, requiring their students to argue either side of a question, another innovation Diogenes Laertius credits to Protagoras. The duration of study seems to have been various, and it is likely that there were different fees for short courses or lectures and longer associations. (Plato’s Socrates quipped that he could only afford P odi us’ cheaper, shorter lecture on the precise use of words.) On the other hand, some students would have experienced a prolonged apprenticeship, travelling with a sophist from city to city, and some hoped to become sophists themselves. The actual curriculum for individual sophists varied, as individual sophists had different interests and specializations. Most sophists taught oratory and debate. Many promised to teach excellence or virtue, especially pertaining to politics and citizenship. Most collected fees for their teaching, and Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias, and Antiphon (b. ca. 479) were reputed to have acquired great wealth through their teaching. Prodicus specialized in the precise use of words. Others focused on literary criticism, ethics, psychology, religion, o othe su je ts. Plato’s P otago as disdai fully emarks that other sophists teach their students traditional subjects like calculation, astronomy, geometry and music, subjects on which he would not waste stude ts’ time. In general, sophists were studying a wide range of topics. As teachers who invited students to participate in an intellectual journey, it is likely that they would have taught the subjects in which they themselves were immersed. The uestio of hat the sophists taught depe ds, ho e e , o the defi itio of sophist, a problem that has proven difficult to settle. Who was a sophist? The root for sophist, sophistēs, is sophos, wisdom. U til the fifth e tu y, sophist as a te of p aise, often used for poets, whom the Greeks regarded as tea he s. By the fou th e tu y, sophist as ge e ally a te of dispa age e t. For example, Aristotle wrote that sophists teach social and political matters, without practicing or having any experience of them, and Xenophon warned that sophists defraud their students. Based on the fourth century depictions of sophists, one might define a sophist as a professional teacher who offered lessons for pay in, at a minimum, oratory or political affairs, but who was not himself politically active. Their lack of political experience, and the improbable boasts of thei lesso s’ benefits, led people to view sophists with suspicion. But it is not clear that the definition of sophist that took shape in the fourth century is applicable to the older sophists. Several of the older sophists were politically active. Pericles was said to have asked Protagoras to write the constitution for the Athenian colony at Thurii. Gorgias served as an ambassador, negotiating and alliance between Athens and the Leontinians. Prodicus and Hippias too seem to have served as ambassadors. There remains scholarly controversy about whether the historical Antiphon – political leader, orator, and sophist – was a single person or three different people. But if he was indeed the same person, he was an Athenian sophist who was a leader of the oligarchy – a political role for which he was later executed. Not only were the sophists more experienced in the affairs of public life than the later criticism would suggest, it is also not clear that they should be viewed strictly as paid teachers. While most of the sophists did seek fees for their lessons, others apparently did not. Socrates famously accepted no fees and was yet identified as a sophist. Later philosophers like Plato suggest that such a label conflated sophists and philosophers. But such disti tio s ay ha e e e ged afte o late i “o ates’ lifeti e. Further, scholars have debated whether Gorgias should be considered a sophist, since he seemed to be exclusively concerned with teaching oratory. Yet it is possible that these distinctions later evolved to distinguish the single, diverse group of sophists in the fifth century. In short, the range of meaning of sophist i the fifth e tu y as uite oad, probably encompassing many intellectuals who consciously educated young men. Ultimately, what united the older sophists was that they kindled a desire for learning in young men, they created possibilities for young men to continue their education, they developed innovations in pedagogy and curriculum, and they led a cultural transformation that laid the foundation for the popular acceptance of learning beyond elementary education. Avi I. Mintz, The University of Tulsa Further reading Diels, H., & Sprague, R. K. (Eds.). (1972). The older Sophists: a complete translation by several hands of the fragments in Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, edited by Diels-Kranz. With a new edition of Antiphon and Euthydemus. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. (reprint 2001, Indianapolis: Hackett Pub.) Dillon, J. M., & Gergel, T. (2003). The Greek Sophists. London; New York: Penguin. Guthrie, W. K. C. (1971). The Sophists. London: Cambridge University Press. Kerferd, G. B. (1981). The Sophistic Movement. New York: Cambridge University Press.