Protagoras 490 BC – 420 BC
Protagoras of Abdera was a Greek thinker traditionally counted as the first of the Sophists. He traveled widely as a teacher of rhetoric and civic virtue, charging substantial fees, and spent much time in Athens, where he was a friend of Pericles. His best-known doctrine, that man is the measure of all things, has been read since Plato as a thoroughgoing relativism about truth and value. He also professed agnosticism about the gods, a stance for which his works were reportedly burned in Athens.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Greek
- Era
- Ancient
- Movements
- Sophism, Ancient Greek
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Protagoras:
“Man is the measure of all things: of those that are, that they are; of those that are not, that they are not.”
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Attributed to Protagoras:
“Concerning the gods, I am unable to know whether they exist or do not exist, nor what their nature is; many things prevent such knowledge: the obscurity of the matter and the brevity of human life.”
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Attributed to Protagoras:
“About every matter there are two arguments opposed to each other.”
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Attributed to Protagoras:
“Education does not take root in the soul unless one goes deep.”
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Attributed to Protagoras:
“Virtue can be taught.”