I don’t believe in an absolute truth, and neither do you–I’m assuming.
This idea caught my attention when researching ancient Greek philosophers and the sophists in my history class last year.
Basically, the sophists believed in something called relativism, the philosophy that truth, knowledge, beauty, and morals are not universal but rather relative to a specific perspective. This highly contrasted the philosophies of some of the most popular and influential philosophers in ancient Greece like Socrates and Plato, who believed that truth was objective and could be found by employing the Socratic Method.
The rise of sophists in Athens was due to different cultural, political, economic, and social developments during that period, specifically pertaining to the emergence of democracy. The sophists were an extension of the itinerant rhapsode, who toured Greece, specifically Athens, to offer lessons on various subjects, highlighting public speaking.
When researching the sophists, I mostly found dialogues and writings from Plato and Aristotle, who both hated them. Sophists were depicted as (specifically in Plato’s “Sophists” and Aristotle’s “On Sophistical Refutations”) tricksters who swindled young rich men out of their money by disguising themselves as all knowing. But in reality their ideas, I would argue, are more relevant to todays society.
This is a little off topic— but I always thought that it was weird that philosophers, people who were supposed to have new and revolutionary ideas, weren’t really able to think outside of their own perspectives. For example, Plato owned slaves. Granted, he had lived in a society where slavery was normalized, but how can you argue morals when you strip away the rights of a whole group? Is it because society benefits you? What kind of innovative thinker can’t look beyond the norms of his society?
A famous quote that stuck with me was one made by Protagoras, a famous sophist: “Man is the measure of all things, of the things that are how they are, and of the things that are not how they are not.” Since man is the perceiver of man, there simply cannot be one objective truth. Man is different in personality, morals, what is thought to be good, bad, ugly, and beautiful— all varied. Protagoras had to have believed that nothing could be understood without taking what’s listed above into account.
Relativism and the sophists teach us that truth is subjective, and it’s important to consider multiple perspectives when moving through life. There can be no absolute truth because everyone’s circumstances are different.
It is difficult to fully understand what history will choose to remember, but it’s hard to ignore what the sophists have contributed to the world despite their infamy. They stand at the origins of grammar, studying language and speech, and questioning gods and the origin of religion. Some contributed to mathematics, and most to the origins of moral, political, and social philosophy, as well as political theory and anthropology. – Source
Leave a Reply