Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Protagoras: With the Commentary of Hermann Sauppe
Protagoras, however, boasted that his teaching did not, like that of the other Sophists, end in a barren knowledge, but that it led im mediately into life, it fitted men for domestic and civil duties. He did not push to its logical consequences his doctrine respecting hu man knowledge and truth, which must have extinguished all virtue and morality,1 replacing them with the concern of the individual for what is good and useful for himself alone; but he followed in his ethics the current ideas of virtue and piety. Now it is by dis course that men are in?uenced, and the prizes of life are gained, and, for securing proficiency in this, men looked pre-eminently to the sophists (protag. 312 d). Discourse was therefore with Pro tagoras a prime object of attention. He taught 6p00£7raa, t.e. Be distinguished the grammatical genders, tenses, and kinds question, ' answer, ' command, ' wish of sentence. Thus he became the founder of Grammar, and the jests of Aristophanes in the Clouds (nub. 659 ff.) evince the striking impression which he thus pro duced. From these grammatical studies, his pupils advanced to the art of oratory, Protagoras setting forth the same subject from Opposite sides, teaching them to discover grounds of probability for the improbable (rev 17770) Adyov et'rrw 7rocc't'v Arist. Rhet. Ii. 24, p. 1402 developing their dexterity in the treatment of general questions, and furnishing as models for their imitation his own treatment of general propositions.
A keen and active intellect, engaging powers of speech, self-con fidence, and a sagacious estimate of the desires and needs of the men of his day, won for him everywhere large numbers of pupils and the deep and abiding effects which his teaching had left upon the thought and the moral views of men could not be denied. For this reason Plato devoted two dialogues to the statement and re futation of his doctrines - in the Theaetetus attacking his theory of knowledge, in the Protagoras his doctrine of virtue.
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