Protagoras (in Greek old Πρωταγόρας / Prôtagóras ) was born with Abdère in Thrace towards 485 and died towards 420 av. J. - C. He was a presocratic philosopher and one of the Greek professional teachers called Sophiste S by Socrate. He taught a thought close to Démocrite which probably succeeded to him, if one trusts at the age of this last. By his friend Périclès, it influenced the contemporary political thought of Athens. Its ideas on rhetoric and the right brought the system adversary in which one leads a student to discuss for the two parts as a drive in right.

Philosophy

Among its many works ( Traité Gods , On the Being , Contradictions , Réfutations , Of the Truth , etc), we do not have any more that some fragments of which two are determining in the definition of its thought.

In the first (paid by Plato) he affirms: “of all the things, measurement is the man: those which are, owing to the fact that they are; those which are not owing to the fact that they are not.” One allotted many interpretations to this statement. Thus, it is by the man and from the point of view of the man that the good and the evil, truth and the forgery take their definition. Absolute justice cannot thus exist because it is relative. The statement can as mean as it is the man who creates the differences with regard to the language, the knowledge, the sensitivity or perceptions. Then any assertion made by a man would have absolute significance only for this man. For example, if it determines that a fruit is green, its neighbor can conclude that the fruit ripe whereas it is about a kiwi, however ripe, is not evaluated on its interior. Under these conditions, according to Protagoras, it is not so absurd to claim that all is true. Although the direction of this statement is badly included/understood, he is often interpreted like a form of Relativisme.

In the other fragment, it shows us his religious skepticism: “As regards the gods, I can know neither who they are neither that they are not, nor which is their aspect. Many things prevent from knowing it: initially the absence of indications on this subject, then brevity of the human life” . If one agrees to believe in God without to have seen it, it becomes absurd to refuse with the other gods their existence. With regard to the beliefs, the opinion changes according to people and the companies.

In Protagoras , Plato devotes a dialog to him which describes an imaginary discussion between him and Socrate where they discuss on the origin of the virtue.

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