The unforeseen defeat of the Persians entrenched the Ionian philosophers' doctrines that the world is governed by logical relationships, and that humankind could develop new sociopolitical institutions and new thought processes and skills to meet their needs. This view was expressed during the 5th century B.C. by, above all, the Sophists.

The original meaning of 'sophist' was simply 'wise person'. It was the word Herodotus chose to describe Solon and Pythagoras. In the second half of the 5th century it was the term used for the teachers of rhetoric who travelled from one city to another giving paid lessons. Those who followed the courses were largely young men from wealthy families. For them, studying with a Sophist was effectively their 'further education' - a sort of third-level education.

On their own showing, the Sophists' aim was to make the learner a person competent to speak in public and construct an argument. But they also claimed to teach him arete, 'virtue'. It followed from their aim that they influenced philosophy, rhetoric and literary studies: they developed the concept of 'parts of speech' and the use of reasoning in debate, as well as laying the foundations of literary criticism.

Though there was only one famous Sophist who came from Athens - Critias - the expansion of the city in the course of the 5th century attracted further Sophists. Unfortunately we have nothing of their work except a very few fragments, and our entire evaluation of them depends for the most part on Plato's thoroughly negative picture of them in his dialogues.

From the little we know, we can clearly see that, as regards the views they professed, the Sophists were not a homogeneous group. Any generalization about them (such as that they were 'revolutionaries' or alternatively 'conservatives') is therefore dangerous. We can also be certain that their lessons targeted the wealthy sections of Athenian society - not just because their fees were high, but because it was the members of this category who had the luxury of free time to spend on the intellectual concerns voiced by the Sophists.

There were certain basic questions that preoccupied them all - Protagoras from Abdera, Gorgias from Leontini, Critias from Athens, Antiphon or Prodicus from Cos. Should human relations be determined by nature or law? Is virtue teachable or acquirable? How to express being and seeming? How does knowledge relate to belief? What force do proof and plausibility have?

Different Sophists may have given different answers to these questions, but what is sure is that their attitudes influenced the intellectual quests of the time. This is evident in tragedy (notably Euripides); in Aristophanes; and particularly in Plato, who made a Sophist the title and central figure of two of his dialogues (the Gorgias and the Protagoras)

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