Is Socrates a Sophist?

By Sting, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3569936

Are Sophists philosophers? No. Is Socrates a philosopher? Yes. Hence, is he a Sophist? No.

Guthrie defines Sophists as “professional educators who gave instruction to young men and public displays of eloquence for fees” (Guthrie 1971 35). While Isocrates says that none became rich, Plato emphasises their wealth which contrasts against Socrates’s poverty. Aristotle points out their “apparent but unreal wisdom” (36) while Xenophon calls them “masters of fraud” (37). Strepsiades, the protagonist in The Clouds by Aristophanes, seeks their services because “they teach to talk unjustly and prevail” (Clouds 115). Socrates alludes to how they make “the weaker argument stronger” (Apology 18c), accusing them of “detaching their teaching in a very cynical way from true values and norms” (CP sec2IC 4). They use oratio or monologue compared to his own method of ratio and dialogue, delivering private instruction while Socrates converses for free in the agora. He knows he knows nothing (Apol. 22d) while the Sophists are ready to teach everything, for a fee (Intro. to Apol. trans. Jowett). His criticism of sophistry created for him enemies, leading to his trial and the verdict of death (CP sec2IC 5). Socrates is clearly not a Sophist.

However, this is not to say that there are no similarities between the classes of Sophists and philosophers. The Sophists are familiar with philosophical writings, and share the attitudes of “rationalism, rejection of divine causation, tendency to scepticism, […] anthropology, evolution of man […]development of human society and civilisation” (Guthrie 46). Among other subjects, the Sophists teach astronomy, mathematics and areté or moral virtue, which are also in the domain of philosophy, though their focus is on rhetoric since winning arguments is more important than truth or virtue. Guthrie writes: “The aim was to be a good talker […] not to acquire a scientific interest in a subject for its own sake” (Guthrie 47), in contrast with the Socratic purist pursuit of knowledge out of the love of wisdom. In Plato’s Meno, Socrates even recommends the Sophists as fit to impart to young men the wisdom to “manage an estate, govern a city and […] show the savoir-faire proper to a gentleman” (Guthrie 39). However, he criticises their fee-taking since it obliges them to speak to whomever will pay while Socrates is free to choose whom he speaks to. He calls them “prostitutors of wisdom” (Mem. I6.13), believing that wisdom is to be shared between friends and loved ones in Xenophon’s account of him.

Guthrie opines that the Sophists were a “necessary transitional stage” in creating philosophers, citing Zeller and Jaegar who claims that the Greeks would not have had Socrates if not for Sophism (Guthrie 48). While the Sophists may be a precursor to Socratic philosophy, their for-profit and winning-regardless-of-truth attitude compromises their intellectual integrity, in contrast to Socrates who maintained it to the point of death.

References:

Aristophanes. The Clouds. William Heinemann Ltd., 1930.

Guthrie, W.K.C. A History of Greek Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 1971.

Plato. Apology. William Heinemann, 1913.

Plato. Apology. Translator: Benjamin Jowett, 2008. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1656/1656-h/1656-h.htm

Xenophon, Memorabilia. William Heinemann, 1923.