Encyclopedia of Philosophy: THE SOPHISTS

Anaxagoras, during the rule of Pericles, was without rival as a resident philosopher in Athens. But during the same period the city received visits from a number of itinerant purveyors of learning who left behind reputations not inferior to his. These peripatetic teachers, or advisers, were called sophists: they were willing, for a fee, to impart many different skills and to act as consultants on a variety of topics.  As there was no public system of higher education in Athens, it fell to the sophists to instruct those young men who could afford their services in the arts and information which they would need in their adult life. Given the importance of public pleading in the assembly and before the courts, rhetorical skill was at a premium, and sophists were much in demand to teach, and assist with, the presentation of a case in the most favourable possible light. Critics alleged that because they were more concerned with persuasiveness than with the pursuit of truth, the sophists were no true philosophers. None the less, the best of them were quite capable of holding their own in philosophical argument.  The most famous of the sophists was Protagoras of Abdera, who visited Athens several times during the mid-fifth century, and was employed by Pericles to draw up a constitution for an Athenian colony. Most of what we know of Protagoras comes from the writings of Plato, who disapproved of sophists and regarded them as a bad influence on the young, encouragers of scepticism, relativism, and cynicism. None the less, Plato took Protagoras seriously and endeavoured to provide answers to his arguments.