From Ignorance to Knowledge: An Interpretation of the Peri Theōn Fragment
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In the peri theōn (‘on the gods’) fragment Protagoras states that he is not able to know either how they are or how they are not, or what they look like in form, due to the epistemological obstacles, i.e. the obscurity and the shortness of human life. In this paper I will suggest an interpretation of the fragment in which Protagoras is seen to concern his ignorance with the gods’ nature, make a division between the objects of ignorance and those of human knowledge on the grounds of the usage of the epistemological obstacles, and encourage anthropological concerns, namely the study on human affairs in domestic and public realms. All things are experienced by man in various ways under diverse circumstances at different times, and thus in fact obscure. Yet, some things can be known, while some other things cannot. Protagoras’ ignorance only of the gods’ nature thus explains that since a state of ignorance of a thing does not directly correspond to any experience of the thing, such state results from a process of synthesising (two or more) various experiences and judgements of the thing previously made. The demarcation between the things knowable and the things unknowable reveals that the things that lie within the length of human life can be known to human beings through sufficiently accumulated experiences and judgements for a production of a synthesised judgement. Lastly, the things that lie within the length of human life are, not the things the objects of natural philosophy or theology, but the things devised in human race and history, namely human affairs in domestic and public realms. Here, Protagoras, for his aim at anthropological concerns, is found to move from human intrinsic ignorance to human knowledge.
Abstract
In the peri theōn (‘on the gods’) fragment Protagoras states that he is not able to know either how they are or how they are not, or what they look like in form, due to the epistemological obstacles, i.e. the obscurity and the shortness of human life. In this paper I will suggest an interpretation of the fragment in which Protagoras is seen to concern his ignorance with the gods’ nature, make a division between the objects of ignorance and those of human knowledge on the grounds of the usage of the epistemological obstacles, and encourage anthropological concerns, namely the study on human affairs in domestic and public realms. All things are experienced by man in various ways under diverse circumstances at different times, and thus in fact obscure. Yet, some things can be known, while some other things cannot. Protagoras’ ignorance only of the gods’ nature thus explains that since a state of ignorance of a thing does not directly correspond to any experience of the thing, such state results from a process of synthesising (two or more) various experiences and judgements of the thing previously made. The demarcation between the things knowable and the things unknowable reveals that the things that lie within the length of human life can be known to human beings through sufficiently accumulated experiences and judgements for a production of a synthesised judgement. Lastly, the things that lie within the length of human life are, not the things the objects of natural philosophy or theology, but the things devised in human race and history, namely human affairs in domestic and public realms. Here, Protagoras, for his aim at anthropological concerns, is found to move from human intrinsic ignorance to human knowledge.
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