Protagoras of Abdera
c. 490-420 BC · Early Greek Thought · Prominent
Protagoras of Abdera was the first of the Greek sophists, charging fees to teach ambitious Athenians rhetoric and good judgement in running a household and a city. He said that man is the measure of all things. How the wind feels to you is how the wind is, and no view from outside anyone can correct it. Readers have taken that line as the founding statement of relativism about truth. He said he had no way of knowing about the gods.
Signature
The position Protagoras is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Truth
- strongly leans Subjective
- Government
- Direct Democracy / Polis Model
Positions on the 6 axes the sources answer
- Society
- leans Collectivism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- The Divine
- mildly leans Indescribable (65 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Universals
- leans Nominalism (75 on a 0–100 scale from Realism to Nominalism)
- Ground of Being
- leans Immanence (25 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- strongly leans Subjective (0 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Conviction
- leans Uncertain (25 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
14 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Protagoras refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Agnosticism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Direct Democracy / Polis Model
What is your ideal form of government?