Philosophysm Daily - Protagoras

Today's philosopher is the man who questioned Truth itself - Mr. Protagoras!

Protagoras was somewhat of a legal adviser in Ancient Greece (circa 450 B.C.E), and as someone in this position it was up to him to create a valid understanding of truth within given contexts. This necessity sparked some brave thinking from Protagoras, as he began to realize how subjective truth can be - how two people could have such solid belief in two completely different versions of something.

Protagoras came to view truth as relative to the perspective and context of the individual, this can be most notably be summed up in his catchphrase "man is the measure of all things". Now, obviously there are some universal ideas which we all deem to be true - things like gravity and HIV, taxes and pooping, etc. But when it comes to your experience of something - the only truth of that is your own.

For example - a man from Dubai might arrive in England on a warm day, and yet for him it is freezing - this is the idea of relativism, a school of thought inspired by Protagoras's writings on subjective truth.

In Protagoras' later years he was condemned for his agnostic stance, and despite being part of a quite esteemed society of scholars, his work was largely denounced by Greek authority - leaving very little of his publications behind. However, both Plato and Socrates both came to know of his work, and held him in much higher regard than many of the other Sophists of his era.

Thank you for reading, and remember that your beliefs are truths that you decided upon, they are relative to your world, history and journey as an individual, and in no way are more true than anyone else's - so respect everyone's model of reality, unless they're human traffickers, then you can judge them as much as you want!

Till next time, stay woke!

Sources:
http://sapardanis.org
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