Protagoras

Protagoras (c. 490 - c. 420 BC) was a Presocratic Greek philosopher. According to Diogenes Laertius Protagoras studied with Democritus.

Diogenes Laertius' book "Lives of the Philosophers" is source for many early Greek philosophers including Protagoras; but this work was compiled over six hundred years after Protagoras' death and consequently not accurate. Plato also wrote about Protagoras, considering him a sophist; Aristotle regarded Protagoras as who first introduced a spiritual principle, as a sober man among the inebriated.

Protagoras' doctrines can be divided into three groups:

1. Orthoepeia: the study of the correct use of words 2. Man-measure statement: the notion that knowledge is relative to the knower 3. Agnosticism: the claim that we cannot know anything about the gods. [1]

Protagoras could be considered an agnostic and relativist. He also was involved in the question of whether virtue could be taught or not. Pericles invited him to write the constitution of Thurii.

"Man is the measure of all things".

Greek philosophers, Gorgias and Hippias were also Sophists.

See also

• Philosophy
• Greek philosophers

External links

• Protagoras By Plato The Internet Classics Archive.