Sophists
group · 17 works · 31 mentions · 56 anchored passages
sophists · the sophists · ancient sophists · sophist · the sophist · wise men · wretched sophists · a host of sophists · calumniators · educators
spoken of as
2 expressionsin the texts
Orations
Professional teachers of rhetoric and wisdom, repeatedly criticized by Diogenes as ignorant and misleading, unlike true divine education.
Do you not know," he said, "that education is twofold:
Or do you think it is the sophists who teach men to be kings?
And he understood too that Alexander despised the manner in which he conversed with him, since he had never heard a man skilled in speaking, but admired the discourses of the sophists as lofty and magnificent.
Stromata
The sophists, criticized throughout as practitioners of empty verbal cleverness and contentiousness.
Hence the Greeks themselves have called those who are over-busy about anything whatever both "wise" and "sophist," using the derived word.
for the Lord alone knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain" — the Scripture calling "wise," of course, the sophists who are over-curious about phrases and arts.
with a crown of delight she will shield you" — since you too, fortifying her with the parapet of philosophy and of right magnificence, will keep her unassailable by the sophists.
Antidosis
Rival intellectuals and slanderers who misrepresent Isocrates' occupation as courtroom speechwriting.
no, if you will only hear me with good will, I am very confident that those who have been misled as to my pursuits and have been won over by my would-be slanderers will promptly change their views, while those who think of me as I really am will be still more confirmed in their opinion.
nay, that some had been absolutely misled as to my pursuits and were inclined to listen to my detractors, while others, who were well aware of the nature of my work, were envious, feeling the same towards me as do the sophists, and rejoiced to see people hold false opinions of my character.
Let me ask you, however, not to pay any attention to what you have heard about me in the past from my would-be slanderers and calumniators, not to credit charges which have been made without proof or trial, and not to be influenced by the suspicions which have been maliciously implanted in you by my enemies, but to judge me to be the kind of man which the accusation and the defense in this trial will show me to be;
Nicomachean Ethics
Professional teachers who demand payment for their instruction in advance.
Perhaps however the sophists are bound to demand their fees in advance, since nobody would pay money for the knowledge which they possess.
but in politics the sophists, who profess to teach the science, never practice it.
On the other hand those sophists who profess to teach politics are found to be very far from doing so successfully.
Sophist
The class of professional imitators the whole dialogue seeks to define; in this passage he is described as taking refuge in not-being and denying falsehood, and is finally re-approached through the renewed division of productive and image-making art.
This also seems no less true than what you said about the sophist.
And we said that we did not know to which of the two the sophist should be assigned.
No one should be discouraged, Theaetetus, who can make constant progress, even though it be slow.
Letters
Class of professional rhetoricians whose practice of charging for teaching is contrasted with bishops.
But we, my admirable friend, keep company with Moses and Elijah and men so blessed as these, who tell us their own affairs in the barbarian tongue;
we, who are thus stripped bare of our stakes by the power of a single letter, or the tribe of sophists, whose art it is to levy tolls upon their words.
The Erotic Essay
Professional teachers of rhetoric and other arts, mentioned by the speaker as a group whose reputation he does not intend to impugn even as he distinguishes himself from them.
Not that in disavowing these subjects of instruction I am impugning the reputation of those who have chosen the profession of sophist, but my reason is that the truth of the matter happens to be as follows:
To Philip
Intellectuals whose ineffectual constitutions and reputation form part of Isocrates' critique of public discourse.
that such speeches are quite as ineffectual as the legal codes and constitutions drawn up by the sophists;
But you will be in the best position to discover with accuracy whether there is any truth in what I say if you put aside the prejudices which are held against the sophists and against speeches which are composed to be read, and take them up one by one in your thought and scrutinize them, not making it a casual task, nor one to be attacked in a spirit of indifference, but with the close reasoning a …
Cratylus
Paid professional teachers, exemplified by Protagoras, whom Socrates ironically suggests consulting for authoritative knowledge about names.
They are the sophists, of Protagoras altogether, should desire what is said in such a Truth, as if it were of any value.
Therefore, when their name is spoken in the Attic dialect, which I was mentioning just now, the heroes turn out to be orators and askers of questions, so that the heroic race proves to be a race of orators and sophists.
Laches
Professional teachers of argument and verbal distinction, associated with Prodicus, viewed by Laches as ill-suited to a man trusted with governing.
and Damon constantly associates with Prodicus, who is supposed to be the cleverest of the sophists at distinguishing terms like these.
Yes, for it is more suitable, Socrates, for a sophist to make a show of such refinements than for a man whom the State thinks worthy to govern her.
Phaedrus
A disparaged class of professional teachers/writers whose label is feared by statesmen who leave writings behind.
and you know yourself that the most influential and important men in our cities are ashamed to write speeches and leave writings behind them, through fear of being called sophists by posterity.
Republic
Paid private teachers accused of corrupting youth, reinterpreted by Socrates as merely echoing and codifying the opinions of the crowd.
Each of these private teachers who work for pay, whom the politicians call sophists and regard as their rivals, inculcates nothing else than these opinions of the multitude which they opine when they are assembled and calls this knowledge wisdom.
Or are you too one of the multitude who believe that there are young men who are corrupted by the sophists, and that there are sophists in private life who corrupt to any extent worth mentioning, and that it is not rather the very men who talk in this strain who are the chief sophists and educate most effectively and mould to their own heart’s desire young and old, men and women?
Theaetetus
Professional disputants whose contentious style of argument Socrates contrasts with his own manner of inquiry.
Well, if you and I were clever and wise and had found out everything about the mind, we should henceforth spend the rest of our time testing each other out of the fulness of our wisdom, rushing together like sophists in a sophistical combat, battering each other’s arguments with counter arguments.
Theages
Class of paid professional teachers of wisdom whom Demodocus first considers for his son, and whom Socrates describes and names.
So I have come now on this very business of placing this youth with one of these sophists, or purveyors of wisdom, as they are held to be.
and in his envy of these he has long been pestering me with the demand that I should take due thought for his needs, and pay fees to some sophist or other who will make him wise.
And moreover, if Theages here does despise the instruction of our statesmen, and is looking for some other persons who profess to be able to educate young people, we have here Prodicus of Ceos, Gorgias of Leontini, Polus of Acragas, and many more, who are so wise that they go to our cities and persuade the noblest and wealthiest of our young men—who have the choice of learning from any citizen the …
Law in a Free State
Ancient Greek teachers whose method of argument is contrasted with the Socratic dialectic.
This was the mode employed by Socrates in opposition to that used by the Sophists.
Memorabilia
Sophists, a class of professional teachers who sell wisdom to any paying comer, contrasted unfavorably with Socrates's own practice of teaching friends without fee.
Those who offer it to all comers for money are known as sophists, prostitutors of wisdom, but we think that he who makes a friend of one whom he knows to be gifted by nature, and teaches him all the good he can, fulfils the duty of a citizen and a gentleman.
On Hunting
Contemporary professional teachers ('sophists') sharply criticized as false educators who claim to teach virtue but corrupt the young with empty, mercenary rhetoric.
The sophists talk to deceive and write for their own gain, and do no good to anyone.
for the sophists hunt the rich and young, but the philosophers are friends to all alike:
But my aim in writing has been to produce sound work that will make men not wiseacres, but wise and good.