Greek Philosophers Biographies - Sophists Part 1
2015-12-20 : the website is under construction. THE PROVERBS ARE O.K., but It will take me a few hours to re-insert the images of the greek philosophers, which for some reason were lost, after my last revision, which i have done a few days ago. so until i remove the sign 'website - under - construction' ... you can study the proverbs with safety !. Please stay on Alert !.
Notes: 1. Diogenes of Sinope ... and ... Sinope ... is the same Greek Philosopher
2. Heraclitus of Ephesus ,,, and ... Ephesus is the same Greek Philosopher
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Greek Philosophers Biographies - Sophists Part 1 in English
The Greek philosophers were among the most influential people in history because they invented both philosophy and science. By asking questions about themselves and the world around them, these philosophers helped create modern civilization.
Interestingly enough, the Greek philosophers thought of themselves as scientists rather than thinkers. They called themselves seekers and lovers of wisdom and often studied a wide variety of subjects, including history, physics, law, sociology, politics, mathematics, and biology. The famous philosophers were also teachers, educating wealthy children and operating schools as well as thinkers.
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Author Birth - Death
13 PRE-SOCRATIC - SOPHISTS - Protagoras 481 BC - 411 BC
PRE-SOCRATIC - SOPHISTS - Gorgias
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13 PRE-SOCRATIC - SOPHISTS - Protagoras of Abdera
προσωκρατικοί φιλόσοφοι - Σοφιστές - Σοφιστική κίνηση - Πρωταγόρας από τα Άβδηρα ( ο Αβδηρίτης )
Democritus (center) and Protagoras (right) 17th century painting by Salvator Rosa in Hermitage Museum
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for more information, please visit the Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia in the following web page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protagoras
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PRE-SOCRATIC - SOPHISTS - Gorgias
προσωκρατικοί φιλόσοφοι - Σοφιστές - Σοφιστική κίνηση - Γοργίας
Introduction
Gorgias (c. 487 - 376 B.C.) was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, orator and rhetorician
from Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he was one of the major figures in the first generation
of Sophists.
Both Plato and Aristotle criticized Gorgias severely, labelling him as a mere sophist (in
the derogatory sense of "sophistry") whose primary goal was to make money by appearing wise
and clever, and not a true philosopher. However, he was undeniably highly influential and,
in bringing his rhetorical innovations from his native Sicily to Athens and Attica, he also
contributed to the diffusion of the Attic dialect as the language of literary prose.
Life
Gorgias (pronounced GOR-jas) was born around 487 B.C. (or possibly 483 B.C.) in Leontini, a
Greek colony in Sicily. His father was named Charmantides, and he had at least two siblings,
a brother named Herodicus and a (unnamed) sister. In his youth, he may have been a pupil of
Empedocles, although he would only have been a few years younger. He was familiar with the
works of Zeno of Elea and used his paradoxes (especially the so-called "arguments against
motion") in his own work.
He was already about sixty when he was sent in 427 B.C. to Athens by his fellow-citizens at
the head of an embassy to ask for Athenian protection against the aggression of the
neighbouring Syracusans. On completing his mission, he subsequently settled in Athens,
probably due to the enormous popularity of his style of oratory and the profits he could
make from his performances and rhetoric classes.
Like other Sophists, he was an itinerant, practising in various cities and giving public
exhibitions of his rhetorical skill at the great pan-Hellenic centers of Olympia and Delphi
(including inviting questions from the audience and giving impromptu replies), and charged
substantial fees for his instruction and performances. His florid, rhyming style seemed to
almost hypnotize his audiences, and his powers of persuasion were legendary.
Among his distinguished students in Athens were Isocrates (436 - 338 B.C., one of the
greatest and most influential orators of his time), Critias (460 - 403 B.C., a leading
member of the so-called Thirty Tyrants of Athens), Alcibiades (c. 450 - 404 B.C., a
prominent Athenian statesman, orator and general), Thucydides (c. 460 - 395 B.C., an
important historian), Agathon (c. 448 - 400 B.C., a popular tragic poet) and Pericles (c.
495 - 429 B.C., a prominent and influential statesman, orator and general of Athens).
Gorgias is reputed to have lived to be over one hundred years old, before dying at Larissa
in Thessaly in about 375 B.C. or 376 B.C. He had accumulated considerable wealth by the time
of his death, enough to commission a gold statue of himself for a public temple.
Work Back to Top
Gorgias transplanted rhetoric from his native Sicily to Athens and Attica, and in the
process contributed to the diffusion of the Attic dialect as the language of literary prose.
He ushered in rhetorical innovations involving structure and ornamentation and the
introduction of paradoxes and paradoxical expression, for which he has been labelled the
"father of sophistry". His rhetorical works (including the "Encomium of Helen", "Defence of
Palamedes" and "Epitaphios") come down to us via a work entitled "Technai", a manual of
rhetorical instruction.
Unlike other Sophists like Protagoras, Gorgias did not profess to teach arete (or virtue),
believing that there was no absolute form of virtue but that it was relative to each
situation. He believed that rhetoric was the king of all other sciences, since it was
capable of persuading any course of action. Thus, much of the debate over the nature and
value of rhetoric, began with Gorgias. Plato (one of Gorgias’ greatest critics) was speaking
in direct opposition to Gorgias, when he argued that rhetoric gives the ignorant the power
to seem more knowledgeable than an expert to a group, and that Gorgias was merely an orator
who entertains his audience with his eloquent words while believing that it is unnecessary
to learn the truth about actual matters.
A lost work, "On Nature" or "On Non-Existence", was one of Gorgias few essays into
Metaphysics. It is available to us only in paraphrases from Sextus Empiricus (2nd or 3rd
Century A.D.) and others, and it is generally skeptical in outlook, intended both as a
refutation and as a parody of the Eleatic School, and particularly of Parmenides. It is
usually presented as a three-point argument: 1) nothing exists; 2) even if something exists,
nothing can be known about it; and 3) even if something can be known about it, knowledge
about it can't be communicated to others. His point was to prove that it is just as easy to
demonstrate that being is one, unchanging and timeless as it is to prove that being has no
existence at all.
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for more information, please visit the Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia in the following web page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgias
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