Deck 4: The Sophists: Rhetoric and Relativism in Athens

Question 1

On which point does Pericles not express pride in Athens?

A) The government of Athens is a model for neighboring
City-states to copy.
B) Athenians obey their laws.
C) Athenians love what is beautiful without becoming soft.
D) Athens has conquered most of the known world.

Answer 1

Athens has conquered most of the known world.

Question 2

What does Protagoras promise to teach Hippocrates?

A) Proper management of his own affairs and the affairs of the city.
B) Cleverness in speaking so he can avoid paying his debts.
C) Geometry, astronomy, and flute playing.
D) The traditional Greek virtues, as exemplified in the works of Homer.

Answer 2

Proper management of his own affairs and the affairs of the city.

Question 3

The key idea in rhetoric is that

A) one should speak the truth, no matter how it affects one's interests.
B) one should be able to make a persuasive case for any position.
C) with its help, one can avoid sleepwalking through life and align oneself with the logos.
D) no one should take advantage of another because of rhetorical skill.

Answer 3

one should be able to make a persuasive case for any position.

Question 4

When Protagoras says that man is the measure of all things, he means that

A) it is only man, of all the animals, that has devised measures for distance, weight, temperature, etc.
B) what exists must be measured by what all men have in common.
C) there is no objective criterion available to humans by which to judge truth and goodness.
D) measuring is important to man for building all sorts of things.

Question 5

When Herodotus quotes Pindar's saying that custom is king over all, he means that

A) each group thinks its own native religion and culture to be the best.
B) nobody would ever question his own customs, which rule supreme in his habits and actions.
C) relativism is a mistake.
D) the king decides what customs his people should adopt.

Question 6

The relation between nomos and physis is that

A) the former indicates what is true by nature and the latter does not.
B) nothing true by nomos could contradict anything true by physis.
C) we can change the former, but not the latter.
D) nomos is divine and physis is human.

Question 7

Antiphon argues that

A) most of the things that are lawful (in the sense of physis) are hostile to nature.
B) it is better to suffer injustice than to do injustice.
C) if you break the rules of society for some advantage to yourself, physis will see that you are punished.
D) in any case, victory goes to the best speaker.

Question 8

In his comic play The Clouds, Aristophanes portrays Socrates as

A) a critic of the Sophists
B) the one who burns down the Thinkery
C) the father of Pheidippides, who wants him to learn how to make the weaker argument into the stronger
D) someone who teaches for pay

Question 9

Which of the following is not a theme expressed in Euripides' play Hippolytus?

A) Rhetoric corrupts virtue.
B) Humans are merely pawns in the hands of powers that care nothing for them.
C) Nothing can harm the truly innocent.
D) Fortune is ever veering and nothing can be relied upon.

Question 10

What did the Sophists claim to teach their students?

Question 11

What does Protagoras mean when he says, "Of all things the measure is man. . . ."?

Question 12

What does Protagoras say about belief in the gods?

Question 13

What is rhetoric? And what consequence does it seem to have for our ability to know the truth?

Question 14

The Sophists claim that rhetorical skills allow a person to "make the weaker argument into the stronger." What does that mean?

Question 15

Explain the difference between nomos and physis, offering an example of each (different from any example discussed in the text or in class).

Question 16

Contrast Heraclitus and Sophocles' character Antigone, on the one hand, with Antiphon the Sophist, on the other hand, about the existence and character of natural justice.

Question 17

Characterize Socrates as he is portrayed in Aristophanes' comic play The Clouds.
As the play opens, Socrates is portrayed as a Sophist, hanging in a basket studying things in the heavens. He runs a school called the Thinkery and accepts students for pay. He promises to teach students how to make the weaker argument into the stronger, and he is a thorough rascal.

Question 18

What is Callicles' theory about the origin of laws of justice in society?

Question 19

How is the practice of rhetoric, as taught by the Sophists, related to philosophical relativism and skepticism?

Question 20

Compare Heraclitus, who says that we are all in daily contact with the logos-though most of us live in private worlds of our own-with Protagoras, who says that of all things, man is the measure.

Question 21

Is it more important to be just or to appear just? In answering this question, be sure to indicate clearly whether and when you mean to be speaking of justice by physis and when of justice by nomos.

Question 22

Facilitate discussion about the similarities and differences between Mozi's description of universal caring and utilitarianism or Enlightenment-inspired liberalism. Ultimately, even though the Mozi argues for the logical coherence of universal love (or perhaps humaneness is more accurate), it is not at the expense of unique and particular relationships.

Question 23

The Zhuangzi can be used to problematize discussions about contemporary environmentalism and activism. What would characterize a natural and wúwéi response to such unnatural changes as increased pollution?

Question 24

The Chinese philosophical debates about logic and language are never far from political and moral concerns. They recognized the importance of being precise with words as well as, for the Daoists, inconsistency and vagueness of words. Bring in Chad Hansen's discussion on the philosophy of language in the Zhuangzi and the Laozi to facilitate comparison with early Wittgenstein and the logical positivists. Chad Hansen, A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought: A Philosophical Interpretation, Oxford University Press (1992). Alternatively, this is a good opportunity to discuss propaganda and rhetoric as ways to facilitate (or dissolve) moral and societal cohesion.

Question 25

Discussion of wúwéi benefits from the idea of "being in the zone" in the sense that one can in a way see what is going to happen before it does. This prescience is essential to acting without artifice. For example, Cook Ding describing his experience of the ox already being in pieces as soon as it is brought to him.