Die Sophisten

The sophists, so to speak, spearheaded enlightenment in Ancient Greece. By turning to subjectivism, they dethroned traditional, mostly religiously based morality; through their teaching, which included not least rhetoric and other techniques of self-assertion, they changed the political climate.
This volume deals with the fascinating phenomenon of sophism by reconstructing the political thinking of sophists from the few existing fragments of Plato’s writings and his dialogues. This shows the range of their positions: The sophists advocated the idea of ‘social contracts’ as well as the right of the strongest. A comparative look at modernity and postmodernity shows just how relevant they are. Nietzsche, Foucault, Butler and even game theory fall back on patterns of thought that we find among ancient sophists. The authors of this volume, who are philosophers and political scientists, unfold the kaleidoscope of sophistic thought in both their time and ours.

With contributions by
Viktoria Bachmann, Thomas Buchheim, Bettina Fröhlich, Benjamin Hahn, Hendrik Hansen, Raul Heimann, Johannes Hoerlin, Vanessa Jansche, Christina Kast, Peter Kainz und Barbara Zehnpfennig.