Protagoras: Importance and Contributions in History

This essay explores the importance and contributions of Protagoras in the history of mankind. It discusses his early life, teachings, theory of relativism, and Plato's opposition to his ideas.

Running head: PROTAGORAS
Protagoras
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
Protagoras was one of the earliest philosopher from the country of Greece, belonging
to the Pre-Socratic era. Protagoras was referred to as the individual who invented the role of
the professional sophist as had been stated by Plato in his own dialogue which was also
named as Protagoras. He was also associated with creating one of the major controversies
with his statement when he stated the everything is measured by the human beings which
means that the whole truth is the only one which the human beings consider to be truthful
only. Although his claims are important and are not to be taken lightly, as they importance of
the individual relativity to one of the concepts to be considered.
The purpose of this essay is to determine the importance and the contributions of
Protagoras in the history of mankind.
Early Life
Protagoras was born in Abdera, Thrace which is located on the opposite side of the
island of Thasos. He learned philosophy from the philosopher Democritus who noticed him
and took him under his wing. Protagoras became well learned in the field of philosophy and
became himself well-known in Athens and also became a friend of Pericles.
Documents about the lifetime of Protagoras were not accurately found but it could be
concluded from the writings of Plato was older than those of Socrates, Hippies and Prodicus,
and that he had died at around the age of 40 – 70 years. Therefore, much about his early life
and activities still remain unclear to the historians and the archaeologists (Notomi, 315).
However, it could be concluded that both Protagoras and Prodicus were friends with each
other and both enjoyed discussions about philosophy and how it relates to the human life.
These are the things which can be said about Protagoras and his early life.

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Teachings
Protagoras was mainly considered to be a sophist whose job was to teach the wealthy
youth of the country the cultures and also how to speak properly with the use of rhetorics for
using them in the courtrooms of the Kings. His views are often found to be opposed by Plato
which can be understood from two of the dialogues which were written by Plato named
Protagoras and Theaetetus as Plato found it his wish to oppose such men which arises out iof
his dislike for the sophists (Mansfield: 350).
However, Protagoras was also known for his theory on relativism which is evidenced
by his claim that
“Of all things the measure is Man, of the things that are, that they are, and of the things
that are not, that they are not”
This claim easily states the fact that Protagoras believed that the man is the measure
of everything, which could have been used in a court by the prosecutor for winning a
particular case.
Theory of Relativism
Relativism is considered to be something that do not have any objective truth to that
something and Protagoras is considered to be one of the first relativist who had proposed
such an idea to the world himself. Although his theory of relativism was not much liked by
Plato who attacked his theory of relativism, Protagoras’ theory of relativism might have been
a simple empirical observation which might have been related to the theory of relativism and
the modern research suggest that perhaps Protagoras might not have declared the non-
existence of God, however such claims had been attributed to the works of Protagoras
himself as his works have faced attacks from another philosopher of the same time by the
name of Plato (Mcintyre: 315).

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Plato’s opposition to Protagoras
Plato had opposed the claims made by that of Protagoras because of the following
reasons. First of all, the reason being Protagoras being a Sophist whom Plato did not much
like as is mentioned in two of the dialogues written by the philosopher. Secondly, Plato was
not a believer in the relativity theory of Protagoras as he had said that all men might be
measured by himself (Notomi: 311). It is because of this reasons that Plato, in the dialogues
written by him, expresses his opposition to the theory of the relativity which was talked about
by Protagoras himself.
Conclusion
From the above discussions, it can be concluded that the teachings of Protagoras is
important but at the same time, it is subject to a number of oppositions from the critics other
philosophers alike. It is because of the criticisms received that Protagoras theory of relativity
had been accepted as an important theory of the past by not only the lovers of history but also
the lovers of social theories. Therefore, it can be said that although Protagoras had created a
major controversy in his life with his statements, it can be said that the Relativity theory is
indeed an important theory which had been presented by the philosopher himself.

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Reference List
MacIntyre, Alasdair. "Relativism, power, and philosophy." The American Philosophical
Association Centennial Series (2013): 313-333.
Mansfeld, Jaap. "Protagoras on epistemological obstacles and persons." Studies in Early
Greek Philosophy. BRILL, 2018. 332-352.
Notomi, Noburu. "A protagonist of the sophistic movement? Protagoras in historiography."
Protagoras of Abdera. BRILL, 2013. 11-36.
Zilioli, Ugo. Protagoras and the Challenge of Relativism: Plato's Subtlest Enemy. Routledge,
2016.

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