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087 Rhetoric and the Sophists

The History of Ancient Greece

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The Heuristics of Protagoras

Diaginus Laiertus relays one anecdote in which Protagoras' pupil refused to pay him anything for his instruction, and so he took him to court. He told the pupil that he should just go ahead and cough up the fee in advance, because after all the student would either win or lose his case. Although the authenticity of this anecdote cannot be confirmed, it is quite similar to the one we described early with Korax and Tisius. The term heuristics now refers to a type of debate or argument that aims at winning rather than reaching the truth.

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