The Sophistic Movement

by G.B. Kerferd

This book offers an introduction to the Sophists of fifth-century Athens and a new overall interpretation of their thought. Since Plato first animadverted on their activities, the Sophists have commonly been presented as little better than intellectual mountebanks - a picture which Professor Kerferd forcefully challenges here. Interpreting the evidence with care, he shows them to have been part of an exciting and historically crucial intellectual movement. At the centre of their teaching was a form of relativism, most famously expressed by Protagoras as 'Man is the measure of all things', and which they developed in a wide range of views - on knowledge and argument, virtue, government, society, and the gods. On all these subjects the Sophists did far more than simply provoke Plato to thought. Their contributions were substantial and serious; they inaugurated the debate on many central philosophical questions and decisively shifted the focus of philosophical attention from the cosmos to man.

Genres: Philosophy, History, Classics

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book - though I'm not convinced that the sophists were such insightful philosophers as Kerferd wants to argue. The enterprise of the sophistic movement seems to me to have been more flippant, and more unscrupulous, than Kerferd suggests.

[Gabriele Iacono · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Teresa Tursi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Testo consigliatissimo. Consente di avere una comprensione completa, dei Sofisti e del movimento, ponendo una particolare attenzione sull'epoca e sugli argomenti trattati da questi filosofi

[Arax Miltiadous · Rating 4 out of 5]

θεωρώ ότι εννοείτε πως από την στιγμή που θα αφιερώσεις χρόνο για την θεμελιώδη μελέτη των αρχαίων, οφείλεις να αφιερώσεις ένα γερο κομμάτι από αυτόν στους Σοφιστές εφόσον είναι η βάση της εκδήλωσης της μορφής της φιλοσοφικής-ανθρωπιστικής σκέψης.
Μπορεί ο Πλάτων να επέκρινε τις δραστηριότητες τους χαρακτηρίζοντας τους ως πνευματικούς τσαρλατάνους, ο Κerferd όμως σε αυτό του το βιβλίο επιδίδεται σε μια ερμηνεία των στοιχείων με προσήνεια και αποδεικνύει πως υπήρξαν μέρος μια συναρπαστικής πνευματικής κίνησης.
Κεντρικός άξονας: τα λόγια του Πρωταγόρα " το μετρό είναι ο άνθρωπος".

[Nerea Aguado Perez]

Leído para las prácticas de filosofía antigua I.

Vaya kings los sofistas.