PP256 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: 2 Unlimited, Lie, Sophist
Document Summary
Protagoras: man is the measure of all things. No objective truth: teachers are to teach you how to persuade others to see things your way. Gorgias: encomium for helen: argument through analogous cases. Accept that the person did it but shows the non-culpability. Why did she go to troy: maybe she went because it was the plan of the gods. Fated, she can"t do anything about it because the gods are stronger than she is. She"s unable to do anything about it: abducted by force. Not done by her own free will: persuaded by words. Systematically convince the audience that she isn"t responsible if she was kidnapped she still isn"t responsible if she was persuaded: forced by eros (the god) Nothing a mortal could do to fight the will of a god. He wants to show she was forced by any option: speech is very powerful, just like physical force is.
