Plato's Counterfeit SophistsThis book explores the place of the sophists within the Greek wisdom tradition, and argues against their almost universal exclusion from serious intellectual traditions. By studying the sophists against the backdrop of the archaic Greek institutions of wisdom, it is possible to detect considerable intellectual overlap between them and their predecessors. This book explores the continuity of this tradition, suggesting that the sophists' intellectual balkanization in modern scholarship, particularly their low standing in comparison to the Presocratics, Platonists, and Aristotelians, is a direct result of Plato's condemnation of them and their practices. This book thus seeks to offer a revised history of the development of Greek philosophy, as well as of the potential--yet never realized--courses it might have followed. |
Contents
The Many and Conflicting Meanings of Σopɩotýc | 21 |
Wisdom for Sale? The Sophists and Money | 39 |
Sophoi and Concord | 61 |
Itinerant Sophoi | 93 |
Sages at the Games | 113 |
Competition in Wisdom | 135 |
Primary Sources for the Sophists | 151 |
| 169 | |
Common terms and phrases
ancient Antidosis Archytas argues Aristotle Athenians Athens athletic century BCE chapter civil strife competition concord context Croesus Delphi Democritus Diodorus Siculus Diogenes Laertius discussion Empedocles example explore fees fifth century fragment Gorgias Greece greed Greek wisdom tradition Heraclitus Herman Herodotus Hesiod Hippias Major historical intellectual interaction Isocrates Kerferd Kramer label lawgivers Lloyd Lycurgus Lysias mentions Montiglio Nightingale Olympia Olympic ouóvoia Panhellenic centers Panhellenic games Parmenides passage Persian philosophy Philostratus Philostratus Lives Pittacus Plato Platonic tradition Plutarch poets political portrayal practices practitioners of wisdom Presocratics Prodicus Protagoras refers rhetoric Romilly Schiappa seems seers Seven Sages similar social Socrates Solon sophia sophoi sources Spartan teaching for pay Teiresias term Terpander Thales Thaletas theme tion tripod Vlastos word xenia Xenophon Zeno γὰρ εἶναι εἰς ἐν ἐπὶ καὶ μὲν οἱ περὶ πρὸς τὰ τὰς τε τὴν τῆς τὸ τοῖς τὸν τοὺς τῶν