Protagoras Quotes on Knowledge
Protagoras of Abdera (c.490–c.420 BC) — the most prominent of the first generation of Sophists, who taught oratory and political success to wealthy young men of Athens during the high classical period — gave classical Greek epistemology its most influential statement of relativism in the famous opening of his treatise Truth: “Man is the measure of all things, of the things that are that they are, and of the things that are not that they are not.” The corresponding doctrine that all the apparently competing claims about the appearances are equally true (each as it appears to its perceiver) and the broader teaching that on every matter there are two arguments opposed to each other supplied the principal philosophical target of Plato’s Theaetetus and Sophist and the founding statement of the relativist tradition the Western philosophical canon would attempt to refute. The framework, recovered through the long debate in the Platonic and broader Greek philosophical literature, remains the canonical first formulation of epistemological relativism.
Quotes
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“Man is the measure of all things: of those that are, that they are; of those that are not, that they are not.”
Πάντων χρημάτων μέτρον ἄνθρωπον εἶναι, τῶν μὲν ὄντων, ὡς ἔστι, τῶν δὲ μὴ ὄντων, ὡς οὐκ ἔστιν. -
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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“Virtue can be taught.”
Quoted in Plato, Protagoras , sec. 361a–b. Translated by C. C. W. Taylor, Plato: 'Protagoras' (Oxford, 1976) p. 56 -
“Πάντων χρημάτων μέτρον ἄνθρωπον εἶναι, τῶν μὲν ὄντων, ὡς ἔστι, τῶν δὲ μὴ ὄντων, ὡς οὐκ ἔστιν.”
Man is the measure of all things : of things which are, that they are, and of things which are not, that they are not. | Quoted in Plato , Theaetetus , sec. 152a. Translated by John Stuart Mill , "Plato", in the Edinburgh Review (April 1866) -
“Δύο λόγους εἶναι περὶ παντὸς πράγματος.”
There are two sides to every question. | Quoted in Diogenes Laërtius , Lives of Eminent Philosophers , b. 9, sec. 51. Translated by R. D. Hicks, Diogenes Laertius , vol. 2 (1925) p. 463. Similar "proverbial sayings" quoted by George Huntingford , Twelve Discourses on Different Subjects , vol. 2 (1797) p. 99, note: Παν πραγμα δυο εχει λαβας; Audi alteram partem . -
“There are two sides to every question.”
Δύο λόγους εἶναι περὶ παντὸς πράγματος. -
“Περὶ μὲν θεῶν οὐκ ἔχω εἰδέναι οὔθ᾽ ὡς εἰσίν, οὔθ᾽ ὡς οὐκ εἰσίν· πολλὰ γὰρ τὰ κωλύοντα εἰδέναι, ἥ τ᾿ ἀδηλότης καὶ βραχὺς ὢν ὁ βίος τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.”
As to the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or that they do not exist. For many are the obstacles that impede knowledge, both the obscurity of the question and the shortness of human life. | Quoted in Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers , b. 9, sec. 51. Translated by R. D. Hicks, vol. 2 (1925) p. 465. Diogenes adds: "For this introduction to his book the Athenian -
“As to the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or that they do not exist. For many are the obstacles that impede knowledge, both the obscurity of the question and the shortness of human life.”
Περὶ μὲν θεῶν οὐκ ἔχω εἰδέναι οὔθ᾽ ὡς εἰσίν, οὔθ᾽ ὡς οὐκ εἰσίν· πολλὰ γὰρ τὰ κωλύοντα εἰδέναι, ἥ τ᾿ ἀδηλότης καὶ βραχὺς ὢν ὁ βίος τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.