Soccio describes the social climate of Ancient Athens in the first few pages of chapter four. (Below is a picture of Athens today, the ruins of the birthplace of Western Philosophy.) At that time, many Athenians were ethnocentric (they believed their ways were superior to other cultures). Since Athens was a trade center, Athenians were challenged by the people from other cultures coming to the city. There was a climate of free speech that eventually gave rise to a sort of formalized education. When one theory or idea was created, it was critiqued by others. And then the new idea was critiqued, and revised, and critiqued again. This is philosophy. This is also the beginning of the division of philosophy called “logic.” As many of you know, I’m sure, there are “Logic and Critical Thinking” courses offered on any college campus. These classes typically deal with the reasoning and arguments in more detail.

The Sophists

The Sophists were people who had a particular reaction to all the different ideas that were floating around. Most came from outside of Athens and offered to teach their worldly wisdom—for a price. They were the first to charge for their teachings, something which Socrates would eventually dispute. The Sophists were also the first to ask What is true? coming to the conclusion that there is, in fact, no truth. In other words, they thought it was possible to argue the “truth” of any position based on your feelings for that position. Have you ever known anyone who has a knack for winning any argument? These people, like Sophists, can find some sort of reason to defend any position. Being “right” or “wrong” has nothing to with it; gaining the upper hand or the power in an argument or debate was the most important thing to a Sophist.

Relativism

This, of course, leads us into relativism or the belief that knowledge only exists in the eye of the observer. Another way to think of this is “truth for me” and “truth for you.” There is no other kind of truth, thought the Sophist. This can also be interpreted as “true for my culture” and “true for your culture.” This is the difference between individual relativism and cultural relativism.

Undoubtedly, the idea of relativism has occurred to some of you. Even among close friends, there are usually differences in interpretation in terms of what is right or what is true. For instance, one person might think prostitution is wrong. And the person who has no problem with prostitution thinks eating meat is wrong. What do we make of these differences? Is there any objective truth or morality? Is there something that everyone believes is right or wrong in every situation? Even things as seemingly clear as murder are not always so clear. Is murder wrong for all humans at all times? What about the death penalty or euthanasia? You might be thinking, well murder is always wrong when the victim deserves it. But then you’re not talking about murder anymore; you’re talking about murder under certain conditions.

Pragmatism

Protagoras (481-411 b.c.e.), the most famous Sophist, took a complex look at the idea of relativism. If truth is relative to cultures and to people then where do we go from there? Protagoras thought that all our values, beliefs, and customs are dependent on where we grow up, who our parents are, and how we are biologically put together. This is something that will recur again and again in philosophy. Every belief we have, reasoned Protagoras, cannot possibly be independent of our cultural conditioning. What is the solution?

Pragmatism is the solution. Pragmatism is the idea that, since there is no objective truth, what is important is what works (that is, what is pragmatic). To the extent that ideas are useful to us, they are meaningful, says Protagoras. What do you think of this? How far could one take this? Is it “useful” for a mother to tell her kids there are demons in a nearby lake to prevent them from drowning? Protagoras espoused a go-with-the-flow attitude toward life: realize that the customs of your society are simply that, your customs, but follow them anyway to be practical. Why make a scene at work because your boss wants you to do something you don’t want to? Just do it, says Protagoras.

I’ll mention briefly moral realism, or that idea that “might makes right.” This is as simple as it seems: what is right is determined by whoever has the power. Since we are studying Nietzsche later, and since he is going to build on this idea in a much more interesting way, I’m not going to go into any detail at this point.