Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander

Continuity and Change in Athenian Social and Intellectual History: Education, the Sophists, and New Intellectual Developments

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11.2.4. XI.[2] The Sophists

In the second half of the fifth century B.C., a new kind of teacher became available to young men who sought to polish their skills for politics. They were called sophists (“wise men”), a label that acquired a pejorative sense preserved in the English word “sophistry,” because they were so clever at public speaking and philosophic debates and were feared by traditionally-minded men whose political opinions they threatened. The earliest sophists arose in parts of the Greek world other than Athens, but from about 450 B.C. on they began to travel to Athens, which was then at the height of its material prosperity, in search of pupils who could pay the hefty prices the sophists charged for their instruction. Wealthy young men flocked to the dazzling demonstrations of these itinerant teachers' ability to speak persuasively, an ability that they claimed to be able to impart to students. The sophists were offering just what every ambitious young man wanted to learn because the greatest single skill that a man in democratic Athens could possess was to be able to persuade his fellow male citizens in the debates of the assembly and the council or in lawsuits before large juries. For those unwilling or unable to master the new rhetorical skills of sophistry, the sophists for hefty fees would compose speeches to be delivered by the purchaser as his own composition. The overwhelming importance of persuasive speech in an oral culture like that of ancient Greece made the sophists frightening figures to many, for the new teachers offered an escalation of the power of speech that seemed potentially destabilizing to political and social traditions.

• sophists: Plato's Sophist [Text]; Sophists as purveyors of popular wisdom [Text]; References to sophists [English Index]; Teacher of Pericles avoids title of sophist [Text]
• prices the sophists charged: Socrates distinguishes himself from those who charge fees [Text]; Socrates on the sophist Protagoras [Text]; Sophists called 'prostitutors of wisdom' [Text]
• itinerant teachers: Protagoras describes his life as sophist [Text]; Socrates on wandering of sophists [Text]

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OCLC: 33900145
ISBN: 0300069561

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