LOS SOFISTAS y EL DISCURSO POLTICO http://www.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/greekphil/greek09.

htm THE ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHERS The history of Greek philosophy started from Ionia in the Asia Minor, which was the closest to and was most easily influenced by Persia (the cultural inheritance of the Mesopotamia). Due to Persian military expansions, the Ionian intellectuals and "technocrats" had to take the refuge to the rest of Magna Graeca, mainly to Southern Italy. As a result of this cultural transference, there were created the socalled migrant philosophers who brought the cultural heritage of the Asia Minor to Italy. As a result, the stage of philosophy was moved from Asia Minor to Southern Italy. In Italy, not only the Eleatic logic and metaphysics were developed, but also many attempts were made to revive the philosophy of nature in the face of the challenges of the Eleatic philosophy. Then the Greek Federation fought a war against Persia who further intended to expand its territories and the Greek won the Persian War (490-480 B.C). The Athenian Navy played the crucial role in the Sea Battle, which lead the Persian Defeat and, thus, this victory of the Persian War by the Greek Federation lead by Athens made Athens the socio-political center of Magna Graeca as the most powerful city state. Pericles, being both the military leader and the politically most powerful, saw that Athens had deficiencies in the cultural aspects as a powerful city state. Thanks to Pericles' cultural policies, now Athens quickly emerged as the center of Greek culture, too. Not only Pericles invited such "philosophers" as Anaxagoras and Protagoras, many intellectuals who were philosophically inclined to pursue knowledge and share its results with the others gathered in Athens. As a result, many great philosophers were born in Athens. Before we discuss Socrates and Plato as the native Athenian philosophers, we must study the sophists, who appeared as a special professionals, as the transitory philosophers, the bridge between the revivalists of the philosophy of nature and Socrates and Plato. The Sophists Through this geo-political transition of culture to Athens, the central question of the problems of philosophy was no longer sought in Heaven and Earth, in nature and its principles (Anaxagoras was still preoccupied with this philosophy of nature in Athens). They were now concerned about the Human beings Themselves. In order that such a radical shift of questions in philosophy was possible, some cultural, psychological and philosophical preparations had to be done in ahead. 1) The problem of human-being oneself and of the society as well as the politics became more serious questions tot the consciousness of the people rather than those of the heaven and nature. Why? Because what had been previously taken for granted as self-evident was no longer acceptable as true, but on the contrary, everything which was taken for granted in humanity and society had become questionable. 2) After the Persian War (490-480 B.C.) Athens became the leader of Pan-Graeca civilization. Furthermore, the Athenians were basically very political people. They were thus more concerned about politics and human-being oneself. 3) The Athenians were originally very practical people, being good at making money,skillful in engineering, well equipped with navigational talents and excellent in militaryaffairs. To them, philosophy, the search for knowledge for its own sake, appeared as idle talks and totally useless in our human existence. That was why they hatedAnaxagoras, who appeared to the Athenians wasting time for idle talks. At that time,they did not appreciate knowledge itself for its own sake and its pursuit. As a result of the victory of the Persian War, Athens and the Athenians (aristocrats, ofcourse) suddenly became very wealthy and now had a lot of leisure. Then, theAthenians started appreciating arts, theatres, poetry, music and philosophy. That iswhy it is often said, "To philosophize, leisure is necessary!" Furthermore, the abundance of wealth and the cultural maturity brought forth thecrushes between the values of the elders and those of the youngers, which lead torelativism of values and culture. Thus, the mental preparation for and attitude towards such questions about the humanaffairs had been already prepared and made them to eagerly raise such questions. 4) Thanks to the economic prosperity and the military strength of Athens, manyexcellent men of letters, arts and sciences, as well as every phase of advancedcivilization were welcomed and gathered in Athens. They were poets, performers, sculptors, painters, architects, scientists, politicaladvisors and philosophers and lawyers. Among them, there were educators and selfclaimingteachers and political consultants at the same time as well.T he so-called"sophists" were some of those intellectuals who claimed themselves to have specialtalents, knowledge and skills (all of which thy called "wisdom") as well as abilities(virtues) and they claimed that they were able to educate the youth with such specialknowledge and skills to smart out in politics. That was why they were called sophists(=wise men). What did the sophist (ho sophists) mean? 1) According to the dictionary, the sophist is an Ancient Greek teacher of rhetoric orcapricious or fallacious reasoner. This definition was mainly due to Plato's one sided conception of the sophist. It isindeed negative allegations probably due to his strong resentment caused by the factthat Socrates, Plato's beloved teacher, was alleged to be a sophist and was prosecutedby a death sentence. The earlier sophists such as Protagoras, Gorgias (whom Platoviciously accused in Gorgias, however), Hippias, Prodicus, Callicles, Antiphon, Critiaswere supposedly different. They gave an important impact to the Athenians and theother city states in Greece both intellectually and culturally. Sophia purports first of allwisdom. Sophizein means, as the intransitive verb, the state in which wisdom is active,and this sophizein later became to be used as the transitive verb, it signifies to makeone's wisdom work, to assist someone's wisdom to work better, to teach! Hsophistsmeans: 1) A wise human-being. Aeschylus called Prometheus in his play Prometheus h sophists in the sense that Prometheus as a wise human-being and a teacher taughtmen many things including the use of fire. Therefore, the term in itself had no negative connotation. And it was further used tocall such people (the Seven Wise men) as Solon, the Athenian great politician whocreated the Athenian Constitution, or as Thales, the founder of the Ionian naturalphilosophy. Herodotus in his Historia thus called Solon and Pythagoras as sophistai . 2) A teacher of rhetoric. As clearly seen from the above, in itself the word, "hsophists", never signified the negative meaning. Therefore, in Athens, people calledProtagoras, Gorgias or Hippias or Prodicus sophists and admired them. As statedearlier, it was Plato that started using the "sophists" in the negative sense, and yet healso sometimes called a mathematician hsophists in Cratylos and Hadsh

sophists in Meno. The difference consists in the fact that while the sophists in theformer sense referred a professionals with the claim of special knowledge and skills (infact they denied knowledge and its pursuit meaningless), the latter as a common nounreferred to a wise person. In the latter sense, in the school of Isocrates, for example,Lycias called Socrates and his followers sophists. 3) According to Plato, the sophists are those who prey the sons of the wealthy with theclaim of producing, wholesaling and retailing "knowledge" and skills which aresupposed to be nutrition of mind and are in reality nothing but appearances andpossess no substance. They were all relativists and claimed that there is no universaltruth and knowledge, so it was meaningless to pursue knowledge. What they called"knowledge" was the skill of rhetoric in the sense of the art of persuasion in politicaldebates and by teaching them, the sophists earned high fees. The so-called sophists are those who themselves do not know what they are. 4) Besides Plato, Xenophon in his Kynegetikos (Hunting) describes the sophist as ahuman-being who exerts himself to deceive others, writes books to his own benefitand love no one else. Since there is no genuine sophist (wise human-being) on earth,according Xenophon, some people do not want to be called sophists (wise men). 5) Aristotle in his Sophisticielenchi, following Plato's negative definition of the sophist,said that one is called a sophist, if he earns money with the pretentious knowledgewhich does not actually exist. 6) In the later period, the term, the sophist, refers to a particular kind of professionals(e.g. Plato's Gorgias). When Socrates stayed overnight at one of his friends' house, ayoung human-being came to him and told him that Gorgias had came to Athens andasked Socrates to introduce him to Gorgias, for he was called a sophist just like aphysician and a carpenter is called so. The young humanbeing told Socrates that, bylearning from Gorgias, he would become a great human-being. Here appeared Gorgiasas a well known educator of the youth. According to one of his fragments,Protagorasdeclared himself: "I am a sophist and my profession is to teach men how to govern the house, thegovernment, how to improve the political affairs of the state and to better the art ofargument and to instruct the youth how to become a significant, influential humanbeing... "It (the knowledge Protagoras would teach them) is hpolitiktechn(political science), that is, it makes the citizen become an excellent politician." Protagoras claimed that the ideal of educating a human-being is to make a humanbeing a good citizen and an excellent politician capable of handling the political affairsof the state better. He promised to make a citizen an able and eloquent speaker, acompetent politician by influencing other citizens and make him capable of assuming asignificant position of the government. Till then (Protagoras' time), the general education of the youth in Athens was either the training for a trade (professional education) or the moral, religious training of the children by the elders of the clan. The sophists did promise or claim a higher level of education than those above two and declared that their job was a further development of Homer and other poets (cf. Werner Jaeger, Paideia). Although the educational ideal advocated by the sophists seemed high and good, their paedagogical methods were not well thought out or even not highly developed. On the contrary, they took their profession as the means of obtaining wealth and attaining a influential position with the then famous politicians. The sophists were not native Athenians. They were foreigners (except Antiphon of Athens) and they used to give a lecture on or several examples of eloquence. According to Socrates (= Plato), the sophist revealed only the finished shoes, and never how to make the shoes! Positive Aspects of Sophists Against those negative aspects of being a sophist in the 5th and 4th Century B.C., weshould not overlook the many invaluable, positive aspects and contributions that thesophists accomplished for the further development of the Western philosophies. 1) The quest for and inquiry into Human-being Himself. The early sophists initiated the shift of the philosophical questions from thoseof nature to those of human-being himself. Considering the furtherdevelopment of the Athenian philosophies from Socrates through Plato to Aristotle, it is the greatest contribution of the sophists of all is that theyaccomplished the preparation for the rise of Plato's and Aristotle's philosophiesand philosophical inquires into human beings and their society. 2) The Lawyer. Needless to remind ourselves of Protagoras' drafting the constitution of Thurioi,many sophists appeared as lawyers and served as lawyers. They helpeddrafting laws, acting legal advisors. Sometimes they even appeared as defenselawyers. They were well acquainted with different legal systems amongdifferent civilizations. They contributed to the understanding of the nature oflaw as well. 3) The cultural anthropologist. By traveling widely, almost all sophists were well acquainted with various cultures not only among Magna Graeca, but also other civilizations than Greek in terms of legal systems, political structures, languages, mores, customs, etc. This awareness of pluralism of the culture made them cultural relativists and those of values. 4) The linguist. They were able to speak several languages and were interested in the inquiry into the grammar and the linguistic structure. 5) The logician and rhetorician. Apart from Parmenides and Zeno, they were the intellectuals who were interested in logic and contributed to the development of logic and as well as the art of eloquentia (speech) as rhetoric, which were further developed decisively by Aristotle. 6) The diplomat. As well exemplified by the role of Gorgias, who came to Athens from Leontini to secure military supports, many sophists were either hemselves diplomats or advisors for the diplomat, as they were well acquainted with various cultures and had mastered the art of persuasion. 7) The politician. Again Gorgias was an example. However, more those who were taught by the sophists and mastered the skills of eloquentia were very successful in obtaining high positions in politics. They were remembered more primarily as politicians than as sophists, however. 8) The political consultant. Many self-claimed sophists were active as political consultants, advising influential politicians, giving advice, helping making legislation, conceiving political plots. 9) The paedagogist or educator.

The sophists were the first professionals who claimed themselves as educators. Education means to mold the youth into a certain trait both in character and skills by giving special training. No civilization has ever neglected education, for the human beings want to transmit the value of the existing society to the next generation. However, here the sophists appeared as the first self-claimed educator for the youth. They claimed that they could make the youth better (superior politicians and influential persons) by teaching them the art of persuasion (eloquentia). This skills were far short of fulfilling the task of moral education, but it is very important that they presented themselves as educators as professionals for the first time. 10) The sociologist. Sophists were well travelled and well acquainted with various societies. Thus, their knowledge about the societies, social structures and its conventions was the first which could claim the beginning of the sociology. 11) The relativistic philosopher in ethics and in epistemology (theory of knowledge). Although Plato would never approve to call sophists philosophers, but they were indeed philosophers with relativistic thoughts in ethics and epistemology. Through their investigations about the moralities of different cultures, they advocated that there was no absolute moral duties, but the moral principles were only conducive to a given culture or society, thus, they were relative. Just as many matter of taste were relative, so they argued, even such matters as moral laws (e.g. Thou shall not lie) and as the meaning of life were all relative. The efforts by Socrates and Plato were answers to those relativism of values which they felt they must overcome. In epistemology, also, they took a relativistic view. Namely, according to almost all the sophists, knowledge and truth is neither absolute nor objective, but merely subjective and relative to the culture, society and person. Therefore, it is non-sense to pursue knowledge for its own sake, since there is no such a thing. In stead of absolute truth and objective knowledge, they believed that what we could call "knowledge" is only the skills of persuade the majority, convince them with what they advocate. This presented a serious challenge to the traditional philosophy, the pursuit of (objective) knowledge for its own sake. Socrates and Plato tried to fight against this relativism. Although their accomplishments seem negative in general, as mentioned above, we must emphasize, they prepared for the re-birth of the philosophy by Socrates (and Plato) and fulfilled the needs of the society at the time of Greece.

http://www.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/greekphil/greek09.htm LOS FILSOFOS ATENIENSES Comenz la historia de la filosofa griega de Jonia en el Asia menor, que fue elms cercano y ms fcilmente fue influenciado por Persia (la herencia cultural de laMesopotamia). Debido a la expansin militar persa, los intelectuales jnicos y"tecncratas" tuvieron que refugiarse con el resto de magna graecaprincipalmente al surItalia. Como resultado de esta transferencia cultural, se crearon los llamados migratoriosfilsofos que trajo el patrimonio cultural del Asia menor a Italia. Como resultado,la etapa de filosofa se traslad de Asia menor, al sur de Italia. En Italia, no slose desarrollaron la eletica lgica y metafsica, pero tambin se hicieron muchos intentospara revivir la filosofa de la naturaleza de los desafos de la Eleaticfilosofa. La Federacin griega lucharon una guerra contra Persia que msla intencin de ampliar sus territorios y el griego ganado la guerra persa (490-480 a. c.). La Armada ateniense jug el papel decisivo en la batalla, que conducen el persaDerrota y, por tanto, esta victoria de la guerra persa por la Federacin griega conducen porAtenas hizo Atenas el centro social y poltica de Magna Graeca como el ms poderosoEstado de la ciudad. Pericles, siendo el jefe militar y el poltico ms poderoso, vioque Atenas tena deficiencias en aspectos culturales como una poderosa ciudad estado. Gracias aLas polticas culturales de Pericles, ahora Atenas rpidamenteemergi como el centro de la cultura griega,demasiado. Pericles no slo invit a estos "filsofos" como Anaxgoras y Protagoras, muchosintelectuales que fueron filosficamente inclinados a perseguir el conocimiento y compartir suresultados con los otros se reunieron en Atenas. Como resultado, muchos grandes filsofos fueronnacidos en Atenas. Antes de Scrates y Platn como el ateniense nativofilsofos, debemos estudiar a los sofistas, que apareci como unos especiales profesionales, comolos filsofos transitorios, el puente entre los restauracioncitas de la filosofa denaturaleza y Scrates y Platn. Los sofistas A travs de esta transicin geopoltica de la cultura a Atenas, la cuestin central de los problemas de la filosofa ya no se busc en el cielo y la tierra, en la naturaleza y sus principios (Anaxagoras fue todava preocupado por esta filosofa de la naturaleza en Atenas). Ahora estaban preocupados por los propios seres humanos. Para que este radical cambio de preguntas en la filosofa era posible, algunosculturales, sicolgicas y filosficas preparativos tenan que hacer adelante. 1. El problema del ser humano uno mismo y de la sociedad, as como la polticase convirti en el ms grave de preguntas de tot la conciencia de la gente en lugar de losdel cielo y la naturaleza. Por qu? Porque lo que haba sido previamente dar por sentadocomo evidente ya no era aceptable como verdad, pero por el contrario, todo lo quese da por sentado en la humanidad y la sociedad se haba convertido en cuestionable. Despus de la guerra persa (490-480 a. c.) Atenas se convirti en el lder de Pan raecacivilizacin.Adems, los atenienses fueron bsicamente muy poltico. Por lo tanto eran mspreocupado por la poltica y ser humano uno mismo. Los atenienses fueron personas originalmente muy prcticas, ser buenos para ganar dinero,hbil en ingeniera, bien equipado con talentos de navegacin y excelente militarasuntos. A ellos, la filosofa, la bsqueda de conocimientos para su propio bien, apareci comoIdle conversaciones y totalmente intiles en nuestra existencia humana. Por ello, odiabanAnaxgoras, que apareci a los atenienses perder tiempo para conversaciones inactivas. En ese momento,no aprecian conocimiento propio para su propio bien y su bsqueda. Como resultado de la victoria de la guerra persa, Atenas y los atenienses (aristcratas, decurso) de repente se convirti en muy rico y ahora haba un montn de tiempo libre. Entonces, laAtenienses comenzaron agradeciendo Artes, teatros, poesa, msica y filosofa. Es decirpor qu se dice, "A filosofar, ocio es necesario!" Adems, la abundancia de la riqueza y la madurez cultural produjo larelaciones entre los valores de los ancianos y los de las youngers, que conducen arelativismo de los valores y la cultura. As, la preparacin mental y la actitud hacia esas preguntas sobre los humanosasuntos ya preparados y haca con impaciencia plantear esas cuestiones.

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Gracias a la prosperidad econmica y la fuerza militar de Atenas, muchosexcelentes hombres de letras, artes y Ciencias, as como todas las fases de avanzadacivilizacin se celebra y se reunieron en Atenas.Eran poetas, artistas, escultores, pintores, arquitectos, cientficos, polticosasesores y abogados y filsofos. Entre ellos, fueron educadores y selfclaimingprofesores y consultores polticos a la vez.T l llamado"sofistas" fueron algunos de los intelectuales que afirmaban que tienen especialtalento, conocimientos y habilidades (que tu llamada "sabidura"), as como habilidades(virtudes) y afirmaron que fueron capaces de educar a los jvenes con tal especialconocimientos y habilidades para fuera inteligente en la poltica. Por eso fueron llamados sofistas(= sabios). Lo que hizo el sofista (hosophists) significa?

1) Segn el diccionario, el sofista es un antiguo profesor griego de retrica oRazonador caprichoso o falaz. Esta definicin fue debida principalmente a una concepcin cara de Platn del sofista. Esalegatos de hecho negativos probablemente debido a su fuerte resentimiento causado por el hecho deScrates, querido profesor de Platn, fue acusado de ser un sofista y fue procesadopor una sentencia de muerte. Los sofistas anteriores como ProtagorasGorgias (quien Platnacusado violentamente en Gorgias, sin embargo), Hipias, Prdico, Calicles, Antifonte, Critiasfueron supuestamente diferentes. Dieron un importante impacto a los atenienses y losotra ciudad afirma en Grecia tanto intelectualmente y culturalmente. Sofa en primer lugar se proponesabidura. Sophizein significa, como el verbo intransitivo, el estado en que se active, sabiduray esto sophizein se convirti ms tarde en que se utilizar como el verbo transitivo, significa hacerla sabidura trabajo, para ayudar a la sabidura para trabajar mejor, para ensear!Hsophistsse entender por: 1) A wise-ser humano. Esquilo llamado Prometeo en su obra h Prometeosophists en el sentido de que ense Prometeo como un ser a humano sabio y maestrohombres muchas cosas como el uso del fuego.Por lo tanto, el trmino en s no tena ninguna connotacin negativa. Y adems fue utilizado parallamar a esas personas (los siete sabios) como Soln, el gran poltico ateniense quela Constitucin ateniense, o como Thales, el fundador de la natural jnicafilosofa. Herdoto en su Historia as llamado Soln y Pitgoras como sophistai. 2) Profesor A de retrica. Como claramente visto desde arriba, en s mismo la palabra "hsophists", nunca signific el sentido negativo. Por lo tanto, en Atenas, el pueblo llamadoSofistas Protgoras, Gorgias o Hipias o Prdico y les admirado. Como se indicaanteriormente, fue el Plato que comenz a usar los "sofistas" en el sentido negativo, y sin embargo ltambin se denomina a un matemtico hsophists en Cratylos y Hadshsophistsen Menn. La diferencia consiste en el hecho de que mientras los sofistas en laex sentido contemplado a un profesionales con la pretensin de poseer conocimientos y habilidades (enhecho negaron conocimiento y su bsqueda sin sentido), esta ltima como un sustantivo comnse refiri a un sabio. En este ltimo sentido, en la escuela de Iscrates, por ejemplo,Lycias haba llamado Scrates y sus sofistas seguidores. 3) Segn Platn, los sofistas son los que aprovechan los hijos de los ricos con lareclamacin de producir, actividad mayorista y venta por menor "conocimiento" y habilidadessupone que ser de nutricin de la mente y no son en realidad ms que apariencias yno poseer ninguna sustancia. Fueron relativamente todos y afirm que no hay ningn universalverdad y conocimiento, por lo que carece de sentido para perseguir el conocimiento. Lo que se llama"conocimiento" fue la habilidad de la retrica en el sentido del arte de la persuasin en polticalos debates y por ellos, enseando los sofistas ganaron tarifas altas. Los llamados sofistasson los que ellos mismos no saben lo que son. 4) Adems de Platn, Xenophon en su Kynegetikos (caza) describe el sofista como unser humano que ejerce a s mismo para engaar a los dems, escribe libros para su propio beneficioy el amor a nadie ms. Ya no hay ningn verdadero sofista (sabio ser humano) en la tierra,segn a Xenophon, algunas personas no desea ser llamado sofistas (sabios). 5) Aristteles en su Sophisticielenchidefinicin negativa de Platn siguientes del sofista,dijo que una se llama a un sofista, si gana dinero con el conocimiento pretenciosoque no existe realmente. 6) En el perodo ms reciente, el trmino, el sofista, se refiere a un tipo particular de profesionales(por ejemplo, Platn Gorgias). Cuando Scrates se quedaron una noche en uno de la casa sus amigos, unjvenes de ser humano vino a l y le dijo que Gorgias haba lleg a Atenas ypregunta Scrates para introducirlo a Gorgias, pues fue llamado un sofista simplemente como unmdico y un carpintero se llama as. El ser humano joven dijo a Scrates que, poraprendiendo de Gorgias, se convertira en un gran ser humano. Aqu apareci Gorgiascomo un conocido educador de la juventud. De acuerdo con uno de sus fragmentos, Protagorasse declar:

"Soy un sofista y mi profesin es ensear a los hombres gobernar la casa, laGobierno, cmo mejorar los asuntos polticos del Estado y mejorar el arte deargumento y para instruir a los jvenes cmo convertirse en un humanbeing importante, influyente..."(El conocimiento Protagoras les enseara) es hpolitiktechn(ciencia poltica), que es, hace el ciudadano se convierta en un excelente poltico". Protgoras afirmaron que el ideal de la educacin de un ser humano es un ser humanoser un buen ciudadano y un excelente poltico capaz de manejar los asuntos polticosdel estado mejor. Prometi hacer un ciudadano un orador elocuente y capaz, unpoltico competente por influir en los dems ciudadanos y lo hace capaz de asumir unaimportante posicin del Gobierno. Hasta entonces (tiempo de Protagoras), la educacin general de la juventud en Atenas fue bienla formacin de un comercio (educacin profesional) o la formacin moral, religiosa de lanios por los ancianos del clan. Los sofistas hicieron prometer o reclamar un mayor nivel deuna educacin que los de arriba dos y declar que su trabajo era un desarrollode Homero y otros poetas (cf. Werner Jaeger, Paideia). Aunque el ideal educativodefendida por los sofistas parecidos bueno y bueno, fueron sus mtodos pedaggicosno bien pensado fuera o incluso no muy desarrollada. Por el contrario, tomaron susprofesin como medio de obtencin de riqueza y de alcanzar una posicin influyente conlos polticos entonces famosos. Los sofistas no eran nativos atenienses. Eranlos extranjeros (excepto Antifonte de Atenas) y se utilizan para dar una Conferencia sobre o variosejemplos de la elocuencia. De acuerdo con Scrates (= Plato), el sofista revelado slo lazapatos acabados y nunca cmo hacer los zapatos! Aspectos positivos de los sofistas Contra los aspectos negativos de ser un sofista en el quinto y el siglo IV a. c.,no debe pasar por alto los muchos contribuciones y aspectos positivos, inestimables que lasofistas realizadas para el desarrollo de la filosofa occidental. 1) La bsqueda de y la investigacin sobre el ser humano a s mismo.Los primeros sofistas iniciaron el cambio de las cuestiones filosficas de losde la naturaleza a los del ser humano a s mismo. Teniendo en cuenta la mayordesarrollo de las filosofas atenienses de Scrates a Platn a travsAristteles, es la mayor contribucin de los sofistas de todos es que selograr la preparacin para el ascenso de las filosofas de Platn y Aristtelesy filosficas investiga los seres humanos y su sociedad. 2) El abogado.No hace falta recordar de Protagoras redaccin de la Constitucin de Thurioi,muchos sofistas aparecieron como abogados y sirvieron como abogados. Ayudaron aredaccin de leyes, actuando asesores legales. A veces incluso aparecieron como defensaAbogados. Bien estaban familiarizados con los sistemas jurdicos diferentes entrediferentes civilizaciones. Contribuyeron a la comprensin de la naturaleza deLey tambin. 3) El antroplogo cultural.Viajando ampliamente, sofistas casi todos estaban bien familiarizados con variasculturas no slo entre magna graeca, pero tambin otras civilizaciones que griegoen trminos de sistemas jurdicos, las estructuras polticas, lenguas, costumbres, costumbres, etc.Esta conciencia de pluralismo de la cultura hizo relativamente cultural ylos valores. 4) El lingista.Fueron capaces de hablar varios idiomas y estaban interesados en la investigacinen la gramtica y la estructura lingstica. 5) El lgico y retrico.Aparte de Parmnides y Zenn, eran los intelectuales que fueroninteresados en lgica y contribuy al desarrollo de la lgica y tambin comoel arte de eloquentia (discurso) como retrica, que se desarrollaron an msdecisivamente por Aristteles. 6) El diplomtico.As lo demuestra el papel de Gorgias, que vinieron a Atenas de Leontino aseguro militar admite, muchos sofistas fueron bien propios diplomticos oasesores para el diplomtico, ya que estaban bien familiarizados con distintas culturasy haba dominado el arte de la persuasin. 7) El poltico.Nuevo Gorgias fue un ejemplo. Sin embargo, ms los que aprendieron por lasofistas y domina las habilidades de eloquentia tuvieron mucho xito en la obtencin dealtos cargos en la poltica. Ellos fueron recordados ms principalmente como polticosque como sofistas, sin embargo. 8) El consultor poltico.Muchos autoreclamados sofistas estaban activos como consultores polticos, asesoramientoinfluyentes polticos, dando consejos, ayudando a que la legislacin, concebirparcelas polticas.

9) El paedagogist o el educador.Los sofistas fueron los primeros profesionales que reclam a s mismos como educadores. Educacin significa para moldear la juventud en un cierto rasgo ambos en carcter yhabilidades dando capacitacin especial. Ninguna civilizacin nunca ha descuidado la educacin, paralos seres humanos desea transmitir el valor de la sociedad existente a la siguientegeneracin. Sin embargo, aqu los sofistas aparecieron como la primera selfclaimededucador para la juventud. Afirmaron que podra hacer mejor la juventud(los polticos superiores y personas influyentes) por les ense el arte depersuasin (eloquentia). Esta capacidad se fue lejos de cumplir con la tarea de moraleducacin, pero es muy importante que se presentaran como educadorescomo profesionales por primera vez. 10) El socilogo.Sofistas eran bien viaj y conoca bien con diversas sociedades. Por lo tanto,fue su conocimiento acerca de las sociedades, las estructuras sociales y sus convencionesel primero que tendra derecho el principio de la sociologa. El filsofo relativista en tica y en epistemologa (teora del conocimiento). Aunque Platn nunca aprobara llamar filsofos sofistas, perode hecho fueron los filsofos con pensamientos relativistas en tica y epistemologa. A travs de sus investigaciones sobre las moralidades de diferentes culturas,abog por que no haba ningn absolutas deberes morales, pero los principios moraleseran slo propicios para una referencia cultural o la sociedad, por lo tanto, eran relativas. Slotantas cuestiones de gustos fueron relativas, por lo que sostuvo, incluso de cuestiones tales comolas leyes morales (por ejemplo, t no deber encontrarse) y que el significado de la vida fueron todos relativos. Los esfuerzos por Scrates y Platn fueron respuestas a esos relativismo de valoresque se sentan deben superar. En epistemologa, tambin, que tomaron unavista relativista. Es decir, de acuerdo con casi todos los sofistas, conocimiento yverdad no es ni absoluta ni objetiva, sino meramente subjetivo y relativo a lacultura, sociedad y persona. Por lo tanto, es no sentido para perseguir el conocimiento parasu propio bien, ya que no hay ninguna cosa. En lugar de la verdad absoluta yconocimiento objetivo, crean que lo que podramos llamar "conocimiento" es slolas habilidades de persuadir a la mayora, convencerlos con lo que propugnan. Esto presenta un serio desafo a la filosofa tradicional, la bsqueda deconocimiento (objetivo) para su propio bien. Scrates y Platn intentaron luchar contraEste relativismo. Aunque sus logros en general, como se mencion anteriormente, nos parecen negativoshay que destacar, se preparaban para el renacimiento de la filosofa de Scrates (yPlatn) y cumplen las necesidades de la sociedad en el momento de Grecia.