O discurso sobre a justiça na primeira sofística: relativismo e democracia na Grécia Antiga

Abstract

This study aims mainly to overcome the vision persisted throughout the history of philosophy about the sophists, thinkers from the V century BC, as mere uninterested in justice and truth, and opponents of philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The dissertation begins questioning the sources and reports about such thinkers, rebuilding their ideas in view of all the conflictive and changeable context they were within, revealing themselves as true representatives of the new democratic order. Special attention is given to their influence to direct democracy in ancient Greece and their importance to the field of law, making it clear that they really concerned with legal issues. Such thinkers had conceptions of justice that, in despite of relativists, were not arbitrary. There are several criteria mentioned by them about justice and commented in this work such as the useful, the advantageous, the verisimilitude, the accordance, the sense of respect, the need, the prudence and the correctness or appropriateness. Also, various other legal issues discussed by the sophists are analyzed, such as the distinction between phýsis and nómos, several criticisms of power systems and discussions on education and legal techniques. In addition, it seeks to analyze the overlapping of their thinking in the legal culture and Greek politics and the consequent influences to law.