2.1.1 The Lure of Practical Knowledge

The mid-fifth century BCE saw the rise of the sophists.  The sophists were intellectuals who could claim to be heirs of the wise men previous centuries.  One group of wise men came to be known as the Seven Sages, who included Thales, by all accounts the first philosopher.  But even here the picture is a bit muddy.  For the term ‘philosopher’ (philosophos) which appeared occasionally in early times, was not yet the name of a recognized profession or intellectual activity.  Terms like starting with ‘philo-’ (or ‘phil-’ before a vowel) tended to denote a person who pursued favorite pastimes like wisdom (sophia); or glory (doxa), pursued by the philodoxos, lover of fame, or horses (hippoi), popular pets and status symbols of the rich, pursued by the philippos, horse lover (giving rise to the name ‘Philip’).  Even the term ‘sophia’ was not yet confined to the intellectual realm, but often applied to the skill of a craftsman. 

In any case, the people who passed as wise men in early Greece were typically individuals who were independently wealthy and had the leisure, culture, and connections to spread their ideas abroad, like Solon, government leader in Athens, poet, and political theorist, and one of the Seven Sages.  If any of them had followers, as Thales apparently did, they were a few protégés, not students in classes of a formal academy. 

With the emergence of the sophists, all that changed.  The sophists announced themselves as teachers.  They were mostly itinerant instructors, traveling to the larger cities of the Greek world.  They would offer public lectures to introduce themselves and their curriculum, showing of their flashy oratorical skills.  They would then offer private instruction to those who could pay the pricey tuition for the privilege of being their students.  They would set up shop for several weeks or months in the present city, pass on their skills to eager young men, then move on to the next metropolis.  The sophists, or at least the most illustrious of them like Gorgias and Protagoras, made a great deal of money by their practices and became renowned throughout the Greek world. 

The sophists were indeed the first persons to offer education to the (young) adult population of Greece.  Greek cities by this time had schools for teaching the three Rs, for boys from about seven years of age until about fourteen.  To learn a trade or a profession, there were opportunities to become an apprentice to a craftsman or a companion to a rich aristocrat (if you had family connections), where you would learn by doing what you were told.  But there was no higher education, nothing, effectively, beyond the equivalent of middle school, for boys (and no formal education for girls). 

What made the sophists indispensable, from a certain point of view, was the presence of sweeping socio-political changes in the mid-fifth century BCE.  Suddenly, led by Athens, the ideas of democracy were everywhere.  Rule by kings and royal families was long gone in Greece, though still celebrated in the epic poems of Homer.  Democratic governments had been first defended by strongmen, who typically went on to make themselves tyrants and rule like kings, but without official sanction.  Now most of the tyrants had been overthrown and democratic governments, championed and promoted by Athens, were functioning and, indeed, finding ways to make even the poorest (male) citizens active participants in the polity. 

But there was one major deficit: to be a player in a democracy, a citizen needed practical skills that he would have had no chance to gain unless he already had connections to the upper class.  It was not by accident that the greatest leader of the Athenian democracy in this time was an aristocrat, Pericles, who promoted democratic reforms.   

Enter the sophists.  They offered a crash course in practical subjects that were essential to any citizen eager to make a name for himself in a democratic regime.  First and foremost, they taught public speaking.  The Assembly of Athens consisted of six thousand citizens.  But to make a difference in a large and rowdy gathering like that, a citizen would have to stand up to the podium, speak loudly and confidently, and, moreover, offer intelligent advice on how to solve problems and manage the city.  Public speaking was an essential skill.  The sophists were renowned speakers who could teach the techniques of oratory to motivated students.  They offered, moreover, classes in political science, to help students understand the intricacies of government.  And they taught financial management, such as was needed either to supervise a large estate or to administer a government budget.  The sophists offered, then, the practical skills needed to get ahead in government and in private business.   

Some of the sophists would also teach the new ideas of the natural philosophers, offering classes on the natural world, mathematics, and literature.  Many, however, dismissed quasi-scientific theories and focused only on the practical subjects that ensured success in the forum and the marketplace. 

Whatever we think of them, the sophists were the first figures in the Greek world to offer higher education to adults, and to make a living as professional educators.  They were seen by the non-aristocrats as a boon to democracy, for they could offer the student a fast track to success in the forum and the marketplace.  They were seen by aristocrats, on the other hand, as a threat to their advantages as the only leaders with practical experience of governing, while belonging to an old-boy network that knew how to get things done. 

So perhaps there was another reason for sophists to stay on the move: to avoid offending aristocrats and mobilizing their class against the new educators.  A little democracy might be conceded to the lower classes, so long as insider still held the reins of powe.  But if the sophists became a local institution, they would threaten the established order in a serious way.  Something would have to be done about them.  But even if the sophists were destined to offend powerful factions in the Greek city-states, they offered a valuable, even priceless, commodity to ambitious young men at the precise time when democratic institutions were opening up to all citizens: the path to success, social, economic, and political advancement in a world that seemed to have no limits.