Book 1: Chapter 10, Protagoras Summary and Analysis

Protagoras belonged to the pre-Socratic movement and was the chief of Sophists. He was born in 500 BC at Abdera, the city of Democritus. He went to Athens twice with his second visit being around 432 BC. In 444-3 BC he made a law code for the city of Thurii, wrote a book On the Gods, and may have been prosecuted for impiety. Plato described him as claiming that man consisted of the measure of all things. There was no objective truth when men differed which may be deriveded from the deceitfulness of the senses. Schiller called himself a disciple of Protagoras, considering that one opinion could only be better but not truer. Protagoras earned money teaching, although Plato claimed that teaching should be free.

Protagoras lived when Pericles ruled rich, powerful, and democratic Athens run by aristocrats. Following...