Protagoras

Protagoras

Protagoras ( proh-TAG-ər-əs, -⁠ass; Greek: Πρωταγόρας; c. 490 BC – c. 420 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and rhetorical theorist. He is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue Protagoras, Plato credits him with inventing the role of the professional sophist. Protagoras is also believed to have created a major controversy during ancient times through his statement that "Of all things the measure is Man, of the things that are, that they are, and of the things that are not, that they are not" which was usually rendered simply as "Man is the measure of all things," interpreted (possibly wrongly, since he disagreed) by Plato to mean that there is no objective truth; Protagoras seems to have meant that each person's own personal history, experiences and expectations, developed over their lifetime, determine their judgments, opinions, and statements regarding "truth" (which is the title of the book in which Protagoras made this statement). Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Protagoras is the 47th most popular philosopher (down from 46th in 2019), the 22nd most popular biography from Greece (up from 23rd in 2019) and the 8th most popular Greek Philosopher.

Protagoras is most famous for his saying "man is the measure of all things."