The Sophists and Relativism

It is frequently alleged that the Sophists were relativists. Claims to this effect can be found in general histories of philosophy, in histories of Greek philosophy, in studies of the Sophists, in studies of relativism, and elsewhere. Sometimes it is moral or ethical relativism specifically that is ascribed to them, at other times a broader relativism concerning knowledge, truth or reality in general; but that the Sophists were some species of relativists is something of a commonplace.' In fact, I am not aware that it has ever been explicitly contested in print. My contention, however, is that this view of the Sophists is largely erroneous. There is but one Sophist, Protagoras, whom we have reason to regard as a relativist in any deep or interesting sense. It is not entirely clear whether even he deserves this label. But if he does, it is solely on the basis of his famous doctrine that Man is the measure of all things (DK 80B1) a doctrine which he is never said to have shared with any of the other Sophists. The tendency to describe the Sophists as a group as relativists derives, I think, from at least two sources; first, from a tendency to regard Protagoras as representative of, and indeed authoritative for, the whole movement, and second, from a too hasty examination of the relation between the Sophists and Plato. On the first point, it is no doubt true that