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Single Idea 1553
[filed under theme 6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 2. Geometry
]
Full Idea
No perceptible object is geometrically straight or curved; after all, a circle does not touch a ruler at a point, as Protagoras used to say, in arguing against the geometers.
Gist of Idea
No perceptible object is truly straight or curved
Source
Protagoras (fragments/reports [c.441 BCE], B07), quoted by Aristotle - Metaphysics 998a1
Book Ref
'The First Philosophers', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 2000], p.220
The
17 ideas
from Protagoras
606
|
Protagoras absurdly thought that the knowing or perceiving man is 'the measure of all things'
[Aristotle on Protagoras]
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1549
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Everything that exists consists in being perceived
[Protagoras]
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3305
|
There is no more purely metaphysical doctrine than Protagorean relativism
[Benardete,JA on Protagoras]
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3313
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If my hot wind is your cold wind, then wind is neither hot nor cold, and so not as cold as itself
[Benardete,JA on Protagoras]
|
3317
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You can only state the problem of the relative warmth of an object by agreeing on the underlying object
[Benardete,JA on Protagoras]
|
247
|
God is "the measure of all things", more than any man
[Plato on Protagoras]
|
612
|
Relativists think if you poke your eye and see double, there must be two things
[Aristotle on Protagoras]
|
1580
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For Protagoras the only bad behaviour is that which interferes with social harmony
[Protagoras, by Roochnik]
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6016
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Early sophists thought convention improved nature; later they said nature was diminished by it
[Protagoras, by Miller,FD]
|
205
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Protagoras contradicts himself by saying virtue is teachable, but then that it is not knowledge
[Plato on Protagoras]
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1659
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Protagoras seems to have made the huge move of separating punishment from revenge
[Protagoras, by Vlastos]
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1552
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He spent public money on education, as it benefits the individual and the state
[Protagoras, by Diodorus of Sicily]
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1545
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Protagoras was the first to claim that there are two contradictory arguments about everything
[Protagoras, by Diog. Laertius]
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1551
|
He said he didn't know whether there are gods - but this is the same as atheism
[Diogenes of Oen. on Protagoras]
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1547
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Man is the measure of all things - of things that are, and of things that are not
[Protagoras]
|
1553
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No perceptible object is truly straight or curved
[Protagoras]
|
532
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Successful education must go deep into the soul
[Protagoras]
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