Similarities Between Sophists And Socrates

Comparison of Sophists and Socrates’ Views

Sophism and Socrates ideologies continue to influence the world today in many facets. Though there was repulsion in the application of thoughts of Sophists and Socrates, manipulation and unfairness seems to be the major born of contention among their views. Question of whether Socrates was a Sophist too have erupted in different platforms. Irrespective of all the analysis and speculations of Sophists’ and Socrates’ philosophies, it remains true that their philosophies not only continue to influence the world, but also span across many topics and portray many elements of both similarities and differences in opinions. This essay particularly narrows down to the Similarities in opinion and differences

However, in the midst of the same there exist some similarities. It can be agreed that any great philosopher is a great persuader. This directly implies that both Socrates and sophists were great persuaders in their capacities. It is through their persuasion skills that they were able to lure other thinkers in to their way of thinking. It is also very clear that sophists encouraged their learners to examine any idea they received, especially the one resulting from the old concepts. This is exactly what forms the basis of Socrates ideologies. Referring to the Apology, though Socrates was great in arguments and had the ability to make weaker arguments turn out strong, he remained silent or low in this one (Gould, 167). This is greatly interpreted as a key character of a sophist and hence classifies Socrates on the records of Sophists. Sophists play around with the feelings and emotions of people, turning any situation into a way they want it to be and this is exactly what Socrates did in this

Logic mostly involves questioning elements of every life facet. The Socratic tradition is notoriously focused on the legal education and prides in making the legal profession a highly logic one. From logic stems down the ideas of what is just or what is justice. Socrates’ Views upheld the fact justice is only what is considered reasonable. This means it was purely a question of applying logic. The danger in this is that if the logic reached a dead rock of nonsensical thinking, then it implied justice was at risk. However, the ability of thinking critically on a subject was not bound to fail on any occasion (Ahbel-Rappe 125). Contrary to this, the sophists were of the rhetoric ideology of doing things (Cazacu 608). This ideology did not examine the assumptions life presented in a logic manner, though it did some questioning (Cazacu 609). This implies that it is as if it never made a provision for people to have a reflection of their actions, thoughts and projections of where they want to be (Cazacu 610). Generally speaking the Sophists did not create an atmosphere for people argue things out critically. Socrates way of reasoning was involving and required cross exchange of ideas thoughtfully. The Sophist way of deploying their knowledge was one-way traffic whereby the recipient’s work was only to comply or rhetorically evaluate and implement the imparted