more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 1550

[filed under theme 13. Knowledge Criteria / E. Relativism / 6. Relativism Critique ]

Full Idea

Why didn't he start 'Truth' off by saying "A pig is the measure of all things", or "a baboon",…or " tadpole"? That would have been a magnificently haughty beginning.

Gist of Idea

Why didn't Protagoras begin by saying "a tadpole is the measure of all things"?

Source

comment on Jaegwon Kim (Mind in a Physical World [1998], B01) by Plato - Theaetetus 161d1

Book Ref

'The First Philosophers', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 2000], p.215

The 19 ideas with the same theme [criticism of the idea that there are only points of view]:

247 God is "the measure of all things", more than any man [Plato on Protagoras]
606 Protagoras absurdly thought that the knowing or perceiving man is 'the measure of all things' [Aristotle on Protagoras]
612 Relativists think if you poke your eye and see double, there must be two things [Aristotle on Protagoras]
335 Do the gods also hold different opinions about what is right and honourable? [Plato]
2053 If you claim that all beliefs are true, that includes beliefs opposed to your own [Plato]
2054 Clearly some people are superior to others when it comes to medicine [Plato]
2059 How can a relativist form opinions about what will happen in the future? [Plato]
20921 How can we state relativism of sweet and sour, if they have no determinate nature? [Theophrastus]
576 If the majority had diseased taste, and only a few were healthy, relativists would have to prefer the former [Aristotle]
7620 Some kind of objective 'rightness' is a presupposition of thought itself [Putnam]
6398 Different points of view make sense, but they must be plotted on a common background [Davidson]
4244 It is very confused to deduce a nonrelativist morality of universal toleration from relativism [Williams,B]
4243 Our ability to react to an alien culture shows that ethical thought extends beyond cultural boundaries [Williams,B]
2065 Not every person is the measure of all things, but only wise people [Plato on Kim]
1550 Why didn't Protagoras begin by saying "a tadpole is the measure of all things"? [Plato on Kim]
3857 Defeat relativism by emphasising truth and reference, not meaning [Newton-Smith]
1577 Relativism is a disease which destroys the possibility of rational debate [Roochnik]
3878 Why should you believe someone who says there are no truths? [Scruton]
7066 If the world is just texts or social constructs, what are texts and social constructs? [Heil]