Plato 8.1 Socrates among the Sophists
In Socrates’ lifetime the big new thing intellectually was the Sophistic Movement. The sophists were self-proclaimed experts who offered to share their knowledge in return for payment. What was immediately striking, perhaps revolutionary about this was the fact that before the sophists, there was no adult education. There were schools in most cities where children — well, boys — could learn to read and write, do arithmetic, sing and dance, and get physical training — in short, elementary or primary schools. There were no advanced schools for older boys, no middle or high schools. And nothing like a college or university to pursue higher education.
In the middle of the fifth century BC, some sophists, self-educated men with valuable skills, began to offer short-term classes to young men who wanted to better themselves. The sophists were itinerant teachers who traveled to larger cities, where they gave some free lectures which demonstrated their abilities in public speaking and education. They then invited prospective students to enroll in their seminars to gain the skills they needed to succeed in life. The best sophists were both impressive in their abilities and shameless in self-promotion. They gathered eager students around them and made good money, many becoming rich entrepreneurs.
One of the first and most successful of the sophists was Protagoras of Abdera. He became a friend of Pericles of Athens and was appointed to write the constitution for the city of Thurii in southern Italy. We meet him in one of the longer early dialogues of Plato, named after the sophist. The dramatic date of the dialogue is 433/2 BC,[1] before Plato’s birth and hence long before Plato’s time with Socrates. In the dialogue we get an imaginative revival of the excitement surrounding the sophistic movement.
The rich Callias is hosting a gathering of sophists in his own home in Athens. Early in the morning the young Hippocrates comes to Socrates’ house and wakes him up to tell him the exciting news. He wants Socrates to introduce him to the sophist and persuade Protagoras to accept him as a student. Socrates asks Hippocrates what he hopes to learn from Protagoras. Does he want to become a sophist too? At this Hippocrates blushes.
While the skills of the sophists are in demand, the profession of being a sophist is suspect. The ideal life for a Greek of the time is to be a gentleman who lives off the produce of his property (harvested by the work of his slaves). To sell one’s services is less than respectable, not to mention advertising to the public. What Hippocrates is seeking, they decide, is a general education suitable for a gentleman — a respectable goal. Hippocrates continues to urge Socrates to help him in his project, despite Socrates’ cautions.[2]
So Socrates gets up and accompanies the boy to the house of Callias, where Socrates crashes the party and meets a house full of sophists, all teaching different groups in different settings. Socrates, at 36 years of age, is one of the younger intellectuals present — a man with a reputation, but not enough to get an invitation to the gathering. But he is not intimidated. He goes up to Protagoras and introduces Hippocrates as a prospective student. Protagoras, seeing the occasion as an opportunity to advertise his skills, invites the other guests to gather around and listen to his pitch. They pull up benches and couches to listen to the presentation.
[1]. See Nails 2002: 309–310.
[2] Plato Protagoras 310b-314c.
