Protagoras

Socrates is the central character of most of Plato’s dialogues, and it is through these works that Socrates is now most widely remembered. Nevertheless, he was a real Athenian citizen and philosopher, and his method of philosophizing changed the course of Western philosophy. Socrates did not write any texts of his own and was a strong believer in the centrality of dialogue for the attainment of philosophical truth. His influence is so great that all philosophers who worked before him are now labeled Pre-Socratic.

As a mentor to Plato and many other young men of Athens, Socrates introduced what is now called the Socratic method, a means of inquiry that progresses via a series of pointed questions, the answers to which are generally affirmed by the interlocutor. By the end of the questioning, the conclusions reached might seem wildly unexpected, as they may reveal radical—often directly contradictory—departures from the assumptions at the outset of the dialogue. One major tool of this method is now called Socratic irony. When Socrates prompted his interlocutor through directed questioning, he often employed a false ignorance that would help lead the discussion to a conclusion that surprised the interlocutor. The method is generally used to lead interlocutors into a more enlightened frame of mind through their own affirmative consent or, at minimum, to pull them out of a debauched, mistaken set of beliefs. In this dialogue, for instance, Socrates uses the method to prompt greater caution in Hippocrates before he gives his soul over to a sophist. Socrates then leads Protagoras out of multiple strongly held beliefs via this method of inquiry.

Unsurprisingly, this manner of inquiry was unpopular with those whose ignorance Socrates exposed, and he made many powerful enemies. Late in life, Socrates was put on trial for corrupting the youth and preaching false gods. Refusing exile, Socrates was sentenced to death, which he supposedly accepted freely. These incidents are dramatized in Plato’s dialogues The Apology and Crito.

Plato presents Protagoras as a cunning sophist of high rhetorical caliber who easily attracts followers. Protagoras was a famous Greek philosopher of the fifth-century BCE, one generation prior to Socrates. Though he hailed from Abdera, Thrace (a northeastern region of ancient Greece), Protagoras is said to have traveled widely, spreading his teachings on rhetorical argumentation and political life. It is likely that he did visit Athens, as Plato reports in his dialogue, and that he had connections with Pericles, whose preeminence in war and governance became legendary in the ancient world. Although Protagoras’s teachings are discussed widely in ancient Greek literature, his own writings are all lost. Fragments and interpretations of Protagoras can be found in the writings of later Greek thinkers, most notably Aristotle.

Protagoras’s most famous adage, “man is the measure of all things,” is indicative of several of his more controversial philosophical views, which are ancestral versions of relativism (via which humans are arbiters of moral truths) and agnosticism. He held the view that justice is not a divinely inspired fact but is conventionally derived through social agreements. According to Plato, Protagoras was the first sophist to proclaim himself as such. His teachings centered on politics and character formation aimed at civic virtue. This included training in rhetoric, argumentation, and poetic interpretation.

In Plato’s dialogue of which Protagoras is the namesake, Protagoras is a highly self-confident traveling sophist who purports to make young men talented in civic affairs through his training regimen. Given his portrayal as an egotistical and ignorant personage, whom Socrates exposes as such, it is fair to assume that Plato did not hold Protagoras or his teachings in high regard. Several clues in the text indicate that Protagoras was more interested in appearances than in reality and more taken by beauty than by goodness. Plato, whose works are often concerned with the task of freeing oneself from illusion via philosophical labor, uses Protagoras as an example of a well-meaning individual who becomes seriously deluded by a few fundamental false beliefs.

Protagoras is seen in the company of two other important sophists, Hippias and Prodicus, who have small roles in this dialogue. Hippias receives more attention elsewhere and is treated unfavorably by Plato. On the other hand, Plato admires Prodicus. In the Protagoras, he seems to be noteworthy for his skill in making distinctions and using precise definitions. 

Hippocrates, named in honor of the famous physician for whom the Hippocratic Oath takes its name, is Socrates’s young friend. Excited that Protagoras has arrived in Athens, he wakes Socrates up before dawn and gives him the good news. Socrates seeks to temper Hippocrates’s enthusiasm with cautionary questions.

Hippocrates functions in the dialogue as a catalyst for the eventual discussions between Socrates and Protagoras, who otherwise would have no reason to meet. Socrates ostensibly visits Protagoras at Callias’s home at the bidding of Hippocrates, questions him—on Hippocrates’s behalf—on the possibility of training virtue, and seems inclined to believe that it is impossible. Though Hippocrates does not have a large rule in the remainder of the dialogue, Socrates is, at least in part, conversing for his sake. One aspect of Socratic irony resulting from this situation is that Hippocrates presumably learns to be wary of Protagoras, since the latter fails to adequately address Socrates’s philosophical concerns. The irony is that Hippocrates gains wisdom by learning that wisdom cannot be taught. This is, of course, paradoxical, and Socrates alludes to this problem at the end of the dialogue.

Many other young Athenians are present in this dialogue as well, including Callias, Critias, and Alcibiades, who is an important interlocutor in another Platonic dialogue. Their roles are minor, but their presence serves to reinforce the influence of the sophists, including Prodicus and Hippias. They also work together to deliberate on how the discussion between Socrates and Protagoras should unfold. In so doing, they express the democratic civic-mindedness that Protagoras teaches. This is another irony, since the conclusion to their deliberations works in Socrates’s favor.