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  • 论派

    The Sophists Overview
    ::社会学家概览

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    The Sophists were orators, public speakers, mouths for hire in an oral culture.  They were gifted with speech.  They were skilled in what becomes known as Rhetoric.  They were respected, feared and hated.  They had a gift and used it in a manner that aroused the ire of many.  They challenged, questioned and did not care to arrive at the very best answers.  They cared about winning public speaking contests, debates, and lawsuits and in charging fees to teach others how to do as they did.  To be able to speak well meant a great deal at that time.  As there was no real paper available, there were no written contracts or deeds and disputes that would be settled today with a set of documents as evidence back then they would need to be settled through a contest of words: one person's words against another's.  Whoever presented the best oral case would often prevail.  To speak well was very important.  The Sophists were very good speakers.  Indeed, they had reputations for being able to convince a crowd that up was down, that day was night, that the wrong answer could be the right answer, that good was bad and bad is good, even that injustice is justice and justice would be made to appear as injustice.
    ::苏菲主义者是组织者,公共演讲者,口交者,口交者,口交者,他们的口交者,是他们的天赋,是他们的语言,是他们的天赋,是他们的语言技能,是他们所谓的Rhetoric,他们是受尊重、恐惧和憎恶的,他们是受尊重、恐惧和憎恶的,是他们的天赋,是他们的天赋,是他们的天赋,是他们的天赋,是他们的天赋,是他们的口语是最好的答案。他们质疑、质问和不关心达成最好的答案。他们关心的是赢得公开演讲比赛、辩论、诉讼和收费,以及教别人如何做他们做的事。当时,能够讲的话意味着很多事情。因为当时没有真正的文件,所以今天没有书面合同或行动,也没有争端,可以用一套文件作为证据来解决。他们有天赋,然后他们需要通过一场争吵来解决:一个人的言语来对抗对方。他们经常质疑、质疑、质疑、质疑和无意达成最佳答案的人,说得好。说的人是很好的演讲人。说得很好。事实上,他们有名声,他们能够说服人,因为当时倒下来的人,是一晚上,他们的名,错的答案可能是正确的答案,正义是好的,正义是好的,正义是好的,正义是好的,正义是好的。

    To support one's position in any matter, nothing better could be offered than a quotation from one of the works, which told of the gods and their actions.  If an action of the gods could be found that was similar to that being taken by a party to a debate then that was evidence of the correctness of that action.  Therefore, those who were the fastest and most accurate at being able to locate quotations and take them and apply them to a given situation would often win the debate, the contest, the lawsuit or discussion.  The Sophists were very well versed in the epic tales and poems.  They were able to find the most appropriate quotation to support any position.  They regularly entered contests and those who won were given prizes, but no prize was greater than being the victor and able to charge the highest rates of tuition to instruct the sons of the wealthy in how to speak in public.  This skill was needed to defend oneself against lawsuits even against the most frivolous of lawsuits brought by one who thought himself to be the better speaker. 
    ::为了在任何事项上支持一个人的立场,只要引用其中一部作品的引语,就没有什么比这更好的了,它告诉了众神及其行为。如果能够发现众神的行为与参加辩论的一方采取的行动相似,那就证明了这一行动的正确性。因此,那些最迅速和最准确的人能够找到引言并将其带给某个特定的情况,往往会赢得辩论、竞赛、诉讼或讨论。苏菲主义者非常精通史诗和诗歌。他们能找到支持任何职位的最合适的引语。他们经常参加比赛,得奖的人获得奖,但是没有比胜利者更大的奖项,能够收取最高学费来指导富人的儿子如何公开讲话。这种技巧是需要保护自己不受诉讼的伤害,即使是针对认为自己是更好发言者的人提出的最轻率的诉讼。

     The Sophists taught courses that might have been labeled with such current phrasings as:
    ::讲诗人教授的课程可能与目前的措辞有关,例如:

    • How to win no matter how bad your case is.
      ::无论你的案子有多糟糕 如何赢得胜利
    • How to win friends and influence people
      ::如何赢得朋友并影响人们
    • How to succeed in business without really trying
      ::如何在不真正尝试的情况下成功做生意
    • How to fall into a pigsty and come out smelling like a rose.
      ::如何掉进猪圈 出来闻起来像玫瑰
    • How to succeed in life.
      ::如何在生活中取得成功。
    • How to play to win
      ::如何打赢球

    The Sophists held no values other than winning and succeeding.  They were not true believers in the myths of the Greeks but would use references and quotations from the tales for their own purposes.  They were secular atheists , relativists and cynical about religious beliefs and all traditions.  They believed and taught that "might makes right".  They were pragmatists trusting in whatever works to bring about the desired end at whatever the cost.   They made a business of their own form of education as developing skills in rhetoric and profited from it. 
    ::哲学家们只持有胜利和成功的价值,他们不是希腊人神话的真正信徒,而是将故事的引用和引文用于他们自己的目的。他们是世俗无神论者、相对论者、对宗教信仰和所有传统玩世不恭的人。他们相信并教导他们“光明正大 ” 。 他们相信并教他们“光明正大 ” 。 他们相信以任何代价实现理想结局的工程,他们以自己的教育形式发展言辞技能,并从中获利。

    Their concerns were not with truth but with practical knowledge.  They practiced rhetoric in order to persuade and not to discover truth.  Their art was to persuade the crowd and not to convince people of the truth.  They moved thought from cosmology and cosmogony and theogony, stories of the gods and the universe, to a concern for humanity.  Their focus was human civilization and human customs.  Their theater was the ethical and political problems of immediate concern for humans.  They put the individual human being at the center of all thought and value.  They did not hold for any universals ; not universal truths nor universal values.  They sought and took payment for their lessons at speaking (and writing).
    ::他们所关心的不是真理,而是实际知识,他们为了说服而不是发现真理而使用言辞,他们的艺术是说服群众,而不是使人民相信真理,他们从宇宙学、宇宙论和神学、神和宇宙的故事,转向了人类的关心,他们关注的焦点是人类文明和人类习俗,他们的剧场是人类直接关切的伦理和政治问题,他们把个人置于一切思想和价值的中心,他们不支持任何普世的真理和普世的价值观,他们寻求并收取演讲(和写作)的教训。

    Here are some excerpts: 
    ::以下是一些节录:

    • Protagoras: Man is the measure of all things, There is relative truth only, Everyone has his won truth 
      ::普罗塔托拉斯:人是衡量万物的尺度,只有相对的真理,人人都有他所赢得的真理
    • Gorgias: nothing exists, If something does exist we cannot know it, even if we can know it we cannot communicate it
      ::高尔吉尔斯:什么也没有,如果有东西存在,我们不知道,即使我们知道,我们也不能交流。
    • Callicles : Might is right and accident and not fate nor the gods nor destiny makes might 
      ::Callicles:力量是正确和偶然的,不是命运,不是神与命运创造的
    • Thrasymachus : Might makes right 
      ::Thrasymachus : 可能是对的

     The Sophists challenged and criticized and destroyed the foundations of traditions and the moral and social order and they put nothing in its place nor did they care to.  While Socrates looked for objective and eternal truths the Sophists were promoting ideas of relativism and subjectivism , wherein each person decides for him or herself what the true and the good and the beautiful are.  This appealed to the mob, the crowds, the unthinking horde but it is not an approach that serves as the foundation for a common life. Conflicts are resolved through the use of power.  The Sophist held that might makes right.  Society's demand for wisdom required more than what the Sophists offered.  Socrates attempted another approach and in part due to the Sophists lost his life in his quest.  Plato would be inspired by Socrates to take up the challenge and find answers to the questions that were most basic and most in need of answering in the quest after wisdom and the good. 
    ::苏格拉底追求的是客观和永恒的真理,而苏格拉底则追求的是相对主义和主观主义的思想,其中每个人为自己决定什么是真实的,什么是善良的,什么是美丽的。这吸引了暴民、人群、不思考的人群,但不是作为共同生活基础的一种方法。冲突通过权力的利用得以解决。 苏格拉底认为,这或许是正确的。社会对智慧的需求需要多于苏菲主义者提供的需求。苏格拉底试图采取另一种方法,部分是由于苏菲主义者在追求的过程中失去了生命。 苏格拉托将受到苏格拉底的激励,接受挑战,找到答案,找到在智慧和善后追求中最基本和最需要回答的问题。

    The Sophists and Socrates
    ::苏菲主义者和苏格拉底

     Socrates could debate with Sophists and do quite well.  Socrates was skilled in the art of reasoning. In his exchanges with the Sophists, Socrates developed his ability to think using a dialectical process.  This methodology would be not only an important part of his legacy to Plato but to Western thought as well.  There were other influences on both Socrates and Plato. 
    ::苏格拉底可以与苏格拉底进行争论,并做得很好。 苏格拉底擅长推理技巧。 在他与苏格拉底的交流中,苏格拉底发展了运用辩证程序思考的能力。 这种方法不仅是他对柏拉图的遗产的重要部分,也是西方思想的重要部分。 苏格拉底和柏拉图还有其他影响。

    "The poets were not the only target of Plato's attack.  The sophists were criticized mercilessly by Socrates.  These wandering teachers were the successors of the rhapsodes .  Recently discovered fragments from the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. prove that they were also heirs of the tradition started by the poet Simonides (556 - 468 B.C.E.).[1]  These few surviving documents have allowed scholars to trace the line of descent from poet to rhapsode to sophist as part of the transition from oral tradition to written record.  When material from more than one source was put together, interpreters were needed to translate anachronistic expressions and foreign words.[2]  As the epics came to be preserved in written collections, a group of rhapsodes became interpreters as well as presenters of poetry.  Some of the earliest prose consists of their efforts to explain the meaning of traditional names and phrases in the old theogonies .  Glosses, along with explanations of Homeric proper names and obscure words by "etymology," were developed, collected and transmitted by the rhapsodes. [3]  Over time, they began to offer instruction in the interpretation of poetry, in the use of letters, as well as in the classifications and definitions laid down by their predecessors.  They also taught techniques of oral presentation and public speaking in addition to the use of an "art of memory," which was said to have been invented by Simonides.[4]  At some point, the most prominent of their number became known as teachers of wisdom.  The early sophists wandered all over the Greek-speaking world.  Later, they converged on Athens, the leading democratic city-state, where they could establish themselves as professional educators and gather their best students around them.  A number of Plato's dialogues bear the names of the major sophists in the tradition - Gorgias, Protagoras, Critias and Hippias.  
    ::“诗人不是柏拉图攻击的唯一目标。 索格拉底斯( Socrates) 无情地批评了这些沙发学家。 这些游荡的教师是Rhapsodes的继承者。 最近从公元前五、四百年公元前、公元前、公元前、公元前、公元前、公元前、公元前、公元前、公元前、公元后、公元前、公元前、公元前、公元后、公元后、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公元、公、公元、公元、教、、教、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、、、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、、、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、、、古、古、古、、、古、古、古、、古、古、古、古、古、古、、、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古、古

    Socrates and Plato would criticize the Sophists for leading people away from the truth by calling up memorized passages and having the memory activated instead of reason.  They would appeal to images and emotions rather than to reason  Socrates and Plato would use and advocate for the use of the dialectical process of inquiry over memorization and repetition and emotional appeals to persuade the crowds.
    ::苏格拉底和柏拉图将批评苏格拉底和柏拉图(Plato ) , 批评苏格拉底和柏拉图(Plato)通过唤醒记忆的通道和将记忆感化而非理性感动而引导人们远离真相。 他们将吸引图像和情绪,而不是让苏格拉底和柏拉图(Plato)使用并倡导使用关于记忆化、重复和情感呼吁的辩证调查过程来说服人群。

    Both Socrates and Plato would find much of value in the speculative thought processes of those who took up another set of questions entirely.  There were those who wondered at the universe itself.  They questioned its composition and origins.  It is to these naturalists or physicalists , these metaphysicians that we next turn.  In the next section we shall learn about the group of thinkers who are collectively known as, the Pre-Socratics.
    ::苏格拉底和柏拉图都会在那些完全讨论另一组问题的人的投机思维过程中找到很多价值。 有些人对宇宙本身感到好奇。 他们质疑宇宙的构成和起源。 对于这些自然学家或物理学家来说,这些形形体物理学家,我们接下来会转弯。 在下一节中,我们将了解那些集体称为前独裁者的思想家群体。

    Read
    ::已读

    lesson content

    EPISD Informed Problem Solvers Goal
    ::EPISD 信息化解决问题者目标

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      Philosophy Applications
    ::哲学应用

    lesson content

    EPISD Critical Thinking Goal
    ::EPISD 关键思维目标

    lesson content

     In one of the Sophists arguments Gorgias is defending Helen for her role in triggering the Trojan war. Gorgias wasn't simply trying to get Helen acquitted in criminal court, he was trying to get people to see her as not entirely responsible for the issue.  Imagine you are charged with a similar defense of Hillary Clinton. As a PR consultant and a Sophist for Clinton (or whatever other social/political controversial person you wish to defend) you would face an uphill battle due to the controversy surrounding her. How would you defend Clinton in the court of public opinion? What would you need to be able to say or do in our modern, culture to convince the American public to forgive Clinton?
    ::在其中一个苏菲主义者的争论中,戈吉亚斯为海伦在触发特洛伊战争中扮演的角色辩护。戈吉斯不仅试图在刑事法院宣判海伦无罪,还试图让人们认为她并不完全对此问题负责。想象你被指控为希拉里·克林顿(Hillary Clinton)的类似辩护。作为克林顿(或你想为克林顿(或任何其他社会/政治争议人物)辩护)的公投顾问和索菲斯(Sopphist),你将面临一场艰难的战斗,因为围绕她的争议。你将如何在公共舆论法庭上为克林顿辩护?在现代文化中你需要说什么或做什么才能说服美国公众原谅克林顿?

    This must be written in the form a tweet but should not be more than 4 tweets total. (a tweet consists of no more than 150 characters)
    ::这必须用推文的形式写成, 但不应超过4个推文总数。 (推文不超过150个字符)

    Vocabulary
    ::词汇表

    lesson content

    EPISD Effective Bilingual Education Goal
    ::EPISD 有效双语教育目标