sophists

sophists
Group of itinerant professional teachers, lecturers, and writers prominent in Greece in the later 5th century BC.

The sophistic movement arose at a time when there was much questioning of the absolute nature of familiar values and ways of life. An antithesis arose between nature and custom, tradition, or law, in which custom could be regarded either as artificial trammels on the freedom of the natural state or as beneficial and civilizing restraints on natural anarchy. Both views were represented among the sophists, though the former was the more common. Their first and most eminent representative was Protagoras; other notable sophists include Gorgias of Leontini, Prodicus, Hippias, Antiphon, Thrasymachus, and Critias. A later "second sophistic school" existed in the 2nd century AD.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Sophists — • A group of Greek teachers who flourished at the end of the fifth century B.C Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Sophists     Sophists      …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Sophists (The) — The sophists G. B. Kerferd In the fifth century BC the term sophistēs was used in Greece as a name to designate a particular profession, that of certain travelling teachers who went from city to city giving lectures and providing instruction in a …   History of philosophy

  • Sophists — Although the term originally applied to generally wise men, it was applied by Plato to various teachers of whom he disapproved, including Protagoras, Gorgias, Thrasymachus, and Hippias of Elis. Plato generally treats them as charlatans who talked …   Philosophy dictionary

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  • sophist — /sof ist/, n. 1. (often cap.) Gk. Hist. a. any of a class of professional teachers in ancient Greece who gave instruction in various fields, as in general culture, rhetoric, politics, or disputation. b. a person belonging to this class at a later …   Universalium

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