Impact Of Sophists On Greek Thought

The impact of Sophist’s view on Greek thought

Greece called into existence a class of teachers known as Sophists. They were a professional class rather than a school and as such they were scattered over Greece and exhibited professional rivalries. The educational demand was for partly for genuine knowledge, but mostly reflected a desire for learning that would lead to political success. They were in fact the first in Greece to take fees for teaching wisdom. They taught any subject for which there was a popular demand. Topics included rhetoric, politics, grammar, etymology, history, physics and mathematics. Early on they were seen as teachers of virtue in the sense that they taught people to perform their function in the state.

In addition to

The critical spirit was part and parcel of the Greek culture from the very beginning, though the religious sentiments too had played an important role in shaping the customs and conventions. In other words, there was no apparent clash between the traditional moral and religious assumptions and the critical spirit. The early greek thinkers involved in deep critical engagements as each generation produced an original thinker who would oppose and challenge what was held before. But about moral assumptions and conceptions of good life, there was a broad general agreement, as the ancient Indians had about their conceptions about dharma. Though its interpretations and understanding of its details vary, there were some broad fundamental agreements. As mentioned above, the Sophists have questioned all the accepted customs and conventions. They have insisted on being critical and thinking logically and through their critical engagements have attempted transforming the old conceptions of the world, human destiny and meaning of human life and even questioned the very sanctity of holding such grand

They have also maintained that the universal moral law can be understood by reason. Countering this position, the Sophists have argued that the moral laws are created by man based on circumstances and they have no independent objective existence. They vary from time to time and place to place and even from individual to individual.

The Sophists are credited for bringing philosophy down from heaven to the dwellings of men. Philosophers before them were preoccupied with the natural world, its workings, its essence etc. The Sophists turned attention from external nature to man himself and with their skepticism and nihilism have exposed some longstanding conventions and beliefs about the possibility of objective universal knowledge. With this focus on man and their constant questioning of the existent assumptions about knowledge they have prompted philosophers to take questions about knowledge—theory of