Abstract

OLIVEIRA, José Sílvio de. The Sophistic Movement in Greece (V and IV a. C.): the work of teaching. Conjectura: filos. e Educ. [online]. 2018, vol.23, n.3, pp.513-540.  Epub July 26, 2019. ISSN 2178-4612.  https://doi.org/10.18226/21784612.v23.n3.5.

Investigating the nature of the sophists’ work as teachers in Greece from the V to IV century BCE is the aim of this article. The historical and ideological bias that the term sophist itself carries throughout the history of education is extensively recognized. Preliminarily, we state we are not going to disproof this intricate stigma that, in a sense, shaped the early educational workers’ character in western civilization. In the historical and philosophical horizon, when the cosmological vision is replaced by the anthropological one, sophists are responsible for a new profession birth: the work of teaching. Being of an ideological, political, economic domain, and bound to the theoretical-methodological scope, the problem can be translated into the following question: To what extent can it be said that The Sophistic Movement was indeed a contemptible one and, thus, it has taken advantage of its own work, the education, in favor of the economic sphere? Asking the sophists is to ask what the principles and meaning of the teaching activity are in its coverage and its historical and theoretical complexity. We know perfectly well that the practical purpose of work was denied in all aspects at that time. Therefore, we expect to answer the causes of the real meaning of sophistic work. Due to the bibliographical character of this article, three sources of research were consulted as follow: firstly, (1) Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon and Aristophanes’ works. Secondly, (2) the works of Werner Jaeger (2001), Henri Marrou (1990), Mario Alighiero Manacorda (2010), Giovanni Reale (1993) and Anibal Ponce (1994); and, finally, (3) other national and international publications.

Keywords : Sophists; Labor; Education.

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