Who was Protagoras?

Protagoras was one of the three most celebrated Sophists. He made such a great name of himself that Plato created a dialogue including Protagoras in Plato’s own teachings.

Protagoras is famous for his claim, “Of all things the measure is man, of things that are that they are, and of things that are not that they are not.” This embodies the Sophists theory that everything is subjective. To break this down, this further insinuates that every man’s opinion is true to him, because only you can experience something. Who is to say your experience is wrong? How can your truth be untrue? Man is the measure of all things. In the end, we are the ones who have the right to say what is right and what’s wrong.

He goes on to claim that this is the only type of truth; relative truth is the only truth that can exist to us humans. Although many philosophers harshly disagreed with Protagoras, he stayed true to his claim that every man has his own truth, and that truth is up for individual perception.

Protagoras is also credited with the idea of dissoi logoi. This is the technique of exploring possible truths through two or more conflicting arguments.

Protagoras, true to his Sophistic nature, said that the weaker argument can appear stronger with the correct use of rhetorical devices. This is what made his rhetorical views so easily opposed, but is also what made his ideas so great. If you were arguing with Protagoras, all possible arguments could not help but to be investigated.

Sources

Herzberg, Bruce, and Patricia Bizzel. The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical times to the Present. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. Print.

Pecorino, Philip A. "Chapter 2: The Greeks." Introduction to Philopsophy. Queensboro: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License, 2000. N. pag. Print.