Published October 17, 2021 in The Controversial Idea Should We Speak Poorly of the Sophists? These easy targets for post-Truth critics served a valuable role in Ancient Greek society. Credit: Unsplash and Alessandro De Bellis It is widely believed that we live in a post-Truth era, and this era was anticipated by a group of itinerant teachers in ancient Greece: the Sophists. The term ‘sophistry’ means making the worse argument appear the better; persuading through clever arrangements of words; and sacrificing the pursuit of truth on the altar of politically expedient bullshit. Published October 17, 2021 in The Controversial Idea Should we blame the Sophists for our current predicament, whereby the truth means so little and success so much? Several Platonic dialogues record Socrates’ interactions with Sophists. So, perhaps their value to ancient Greek society is understated. Did men like Protagoras, Gorgias and Thrasymachus offer something more than a technique for swaying crowds in the Agora and law courts, taught to Greek citizens in exchange for a fee? Maybe — just maybe — we should stop speaking so poorly of the Sophists. Who were the Sophists? Sophism was a movement in 4th and 5th century B.C. to teach citizens of the Greek city-states how to persuade others and influence the direction of political affairs. A citizen could be ostracized or executed (as was the case with Socrates) if he was not sufficiently skilled in arguing for his interests in the law courts and the Agora. A cadre of rhetoric teachers, the Sophists, developed to meet this need. The Jesuit philosopher of history Frederick Copleston explains: In Greece, after the Persian Wars, political life was naturally intensified, and this was particularly the case in democratic Athens. The free citizen played some part, at any rate, in political life, and if he wanted to be on he obviously had to have some kind of training. The old education was insufficient for Published October 17, 2021 in The Controversial Idea the man who wished to make his way in the State; the old aristocratic ideal was, whether intrinsically superior to the new ideals or not, incapable of meeting the demands made on leaders in the developing democracy: something more was needed, and this need was met by the Sophists. The Sophists were travelling teachers, and since their expertise was widely recognized in the Greece city-states, they were often recruited to also serve as ambassadors. Unfortunately, they developed a reputation for rejecting objective Truth, embracing a wide-ranging Relativism (truth is what you personally believe or what is widely accepted within your culture) and endorsing morally-toxic views (e.g., what is right is what the stronger party believes to be right). In the Platonic dialogue Gorgias, Socrates engages in conversation with the skilled Sophist Gorgias. Socrates questions the relation of learning rhetoric to cultivating virtue, since the former unlike the latter does not aim at the Truth. Socrates declares, “If you want to silence me, silence philosophy, who is my love.” Thus, Sophistry becomes the enemy of Philosophy. Protagoras: Man is the measure Another Sophist, Protagoras, famously noted that “Man is the measure of all things.” But what did he mean by this statement? Published October 17, 2021 in The Controversial Idea One possible interpretation is that the value of all things is relative to Mankind or humanity as a whole. Man is the only valuer, not animals or Gods. But the more common interpretation is that the value of a thing is relative to some individual person. In other words, nothing has objective value apart from a valuer, a unique human being. This is the essence of Relativism. It’s also what many critics see as the problem with post-Truth thinking: Anyone’s belief in what is true and good is as good as anyone else’s. So, there can be no final arbiter of objective truth or goodness. Thrasymachus: Might is right In the Platonic dialogue, The Republic, Socrates’ interlocutor, Thrasymachus, declares that justice is whatever is in the interest of the stronger party in a given state, “the advantage of the man who is stronger and rules." This morally repugnant view was familiar to the ancient Greeks. In Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War, he describes a meeting between residents of the island of Melos and the Athenian army. Although the Melians were neutral in the war between Athens and Sparta, Athens demanded that the Melians surrender and offer a tribute to Athens. Otherwise, if the Melians refused (and ultimately this was the outcome), the Published October 17, 2021 in The Controversial Idea Athenians would mount a siege, plunder the island, kill its male citizens and enslave the women and children. In other words, might is always right. The Sophists as a civilizing force Although we might disagree with some of their views (e.g., man is the measure of all things and might is right), we can still acknowledge that the Sophists were more than early post-Truth thinkers. They traveled between the Greek city-states teaching grammar, rhetoric and poetry. They cultivated in their students a certain kind of virtue, more prudential and less truth-oriented than the variety espoused by philosophers. In their capacity as ambassadors, they helped to make peace between the Greek city-states. In their capacity as teachers of rhetoric, they enlivened Greek political life, permitting ordinary citizens to challenge the aristocratic status quo and introduce fresh democratic norms. Ultimately, the Sophists elevated and civilized the ancient Greek world. Perhaps, then, we should speak more positively about the Sophists. Shane J. Ralston, Ph.D., is the Dean and a Teaching Fellow at Wright College, Woolf University.