POL 2107 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Irony, Dialectic, Political Philosophy
31 Oct 2016
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Sophists sophomores the thinkers against whom socrates argued. Most of them were foreigners, teachers by profession who taught rhetoric. They were criticized by aristotle for their wisdom". Divided into 2 schools of thought: 1. Nature is good and civilization is bad: by nature, all men are equal and become unequal only by class-made institutions, law was an invention of the strong to chain and rule the weak. Rousseau: man is born free, but everywhere is in chains: 2. Nature is above humanity: morality is an invention of the weak to limit and deter the strong, power is a supreme virtue of the individual, of all forms of government, the wisest and most natural is aristocracy. Socrates" protagoras: there is a standard to judge what one is being taught. Went so far as to compare the sophists to prostitutes = selling one"s mind as equal to selling one"s body.
