Man the Measure (Homo Mensura)
Protagoras' provocative dictum that 'man is the measure of all things' — what seems true to you is true for you, with no higher court of appeal.
Homo mensura is the famous thesis of the Sophist Protagoras of Abdera, from the 5th century BCE: 'Of all things the measure is man — of things that are, that they are; of things that are not, that they are not.' It makes truth relative to each perceiver, so the wind really is cold for the one who feels it cold and warm for the one who feels it warm. Plato made refuting this relativism a centerpiece of the Theaetetus, and it endures as the classic ancient statement of subjectivism about truth.
How it traveled
- Adversus MathematicosAlexandria · 190explains
- Praeparatio Evangelica—explains
Key passages(20)
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Praeparatio Evangelica · Eusebius of Caesarea
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
In Aristotelis Metaphysica Commentaria · Syrianus
Praeparatio Evangelica · Eusebius of Caesarea
Praeparatio Evangelica · Eusebius of Caesarea
Praeparatio Evangelica · Eusebius of Caesarea
Praeparatio Evangelica · Eusebius of Caesarea
Lives of the Sophists · Philostratus the Athenian
Scholia in Euripidis Phoenissas (scholia vetera et scholia recentiora Thomae Magistri, Triclinii, Moschopuli et anonyma) · Scholia in Euripidem
Epistulae · Seneca, Lucius Annaeus
Epistulae · Seneca, Lucius Annaeus
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus