Protagoras of Abdera (c. 490-420 BCE) was an ancient sophist lecturer—simply put, a traveling educator-for-hire—whose career overlapped with the great philosopher, Socrates (c. 469-399 BCE). Like Socrates, Protagoras treated common religious beliefs with a skeptical and rather agnostic point of view. He believed truth was relative, and he put more value on observation or the results of human inquiry than on blind faith in perceived divine revelation. According to Plato (c. 427-347 BCE), “Protagoras…says somewhere that man is ‘the measure of all things, of the existence of the things that are and the non-existence of the things that are not.’” (Plato, Theaetetus, section 152a). In keeping with his belief that our view of reality should be measured by human observation and testable knowledge, Protagoras concluded there was little, if anything, that he could confidently state as fact on the subject of divine beings. Protagoras was forthcoming about this conclusion. According to the Roman statesman, orator, and author, Cicero (106-43 BCE), Protagoras prefaced a treatise, called On the gods, with the statement: “I cannot say whether gods exist or not” (Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, 1.63). A longer version of the preface was recorded by the later historian, biographer, and Christian author, Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260-339 CE). According to Eusebius, Protagoras’ more complete preface stated: “So far as gods are concerned, I cannot know whether they exist or not, nor what they are like in appearance; for many factors impede our knowledge—obscurity and the shortness of life” (Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, 14.3.7, and Diels-Kranz 80B4).
Protagoras, like Socrates, experienced backlash in ancient Greece for his questioning of religious beliefs. As the story goes, the authorities in Athens attempted to use the might of the state to suppress Protagoras’ teachings. Fortunately for him, he was not executed for impiety, as was the case with Socrates. Instead, it was said that Protagoras was exiled from Athens and that his teachings faced heavy censorship, even burning. On this, the aforementioned Roman statesman, Cicero, wrote, “As for Protagoras of Abdera, whom you have just mentioned and who was quite the most important sophist of his day, he prefaced his book with the words ‘I cannot say whether the gods exist or not’, and by order of the Athenians he was banished from their city and territory, and had his books publicly burnt” (Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, 1.63). Despite the exile and censorship, Protagoras’ teachings and beliefs had already influenced other great intellectual and philosophical minds of the day, such as Plato, who kept Protagoras’ arguments alive in their own works. Ironically, although the actual texts of Protagoras did not survive to the modern day, his views (or lack thereof) about the gods have survived and left a lasting impact in the world.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Portrait of a sculpted philosopher, possibly the Greek cynic and satirist Menippus, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the SMK collection).
Sources:
- Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, translated by P. G. Walsh. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, 1998, 2008.
- [Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, Diels-Kranz 80B4] https://archive.org/details/oldersophistscom0000unse/page/4/mode/1up?q=shortness
- [Eusebius of Caesarea: Praeparatio Evangelica] https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_pe_14_book14.htm
- [Plato, Theaetetus] https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0172%3Atext%3DTheaet.%3Apage%3D152
- https://iep.utm.edu/sophists/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Protagoras-Greek-philosopher
