Podcasts · Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle: The Thinkers Who Changed History — Fexingo History
Socrates and the Sophists: The Art of Questioning Everything
· 11 min · S4 E200
Episode Socrates and the Sophists: The Art of Questioning Everything
In this two-hundredth episode of Fexingo History, Lucas and Luna step into the crowded, dusty lanes of ancient Athens to meet the professionals of persuasion: the sophists. While Socrates spent his life insisting that wisdom begins with admitting ignorance, these traveling teachers promised to make anyone a master of argument — for a fee. Together, Lucas and Luna unpack the roots of the word 'sophist,' the controversial careers of Protagoras and Gorgias, and how their methods sparked a culture war over truth itself. They explore the real stakes behind Plato's caricatures, the surprising overlap between Socratic questioning and Sophistic argument, and why the battle between absolute truth and persuasive relativism still echoes in every courtroom and political debate today. With a little help from the ancient sources, they sort the myth from the method, and ask whether we might owe the sophists more than we think.
#Sophists #Socrates #Protagoras #Gorgias #AncientGreece #Athens #Philosophy #Rhetoric #Plato #Relativism #Truth #ClassicalGreece #GreekPhilosophy #History #FexingoHistory #Paideia #Agon #Logos
Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
Links in the notes 1
Transcript
Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.