Antiphon (person)
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Antiphon the Sophist lived in Athens probably in the last two decades of the 5th century BCE. He has often been confused with Antiphon of the Athenian deme Rhamnus in Attica (480-411 BC) the earliest of the ten Attic orators.
Antiphon of Rhamnus was an orator and statesman who took up rhetoric as a profession. He took an active part in political affairs at Athens, and, as a zealous supporter of the Oligarchical party, was largely responsible for the establishment of the Four Hundred in 411 (see Theramenes); on the restoration the democracy shortly afterwards, he was accused of treason and condemned to death. Thucydides (viii. 68) expresses a very high opinion of him. Antiphon may be regarded as the founder of political oratory, but he never addressed the people himself except on the occasion of his trial. Fragments of his speech then, delivered in defence of his policy (called Περι μεταστασεως) have been edited by J. Nicole (1907) from an Egyptian papyrus. His chief business was that of a logographer (λογογραφος)—a professional speech-writer for those who felt incompetent to conduct their own cases, as all disputants were obliged to do, without expert assistance. Fifteen of Antiphon's speeches are extant: twelve are mere school exercises on fictitious cases, divided into tetralogies, each comprising two speeches for prosecution and defence—accusation, fence, reply, counter-reply; three refer to actual legal processes. All deal with cases of homicide (φονικαι δικαι). Antiphon is also said to have composed a Τεχνη or art of Rhetoric.
Of much greater importance for political theory is Antiphon the Sophist, whose On Truth, of which only fragments survive, demonstrate that he could not be the same person as Antiphon of Rhamnus (above) for that work, a pioneer in the theory of natural rights, affirms strong egalitarian and libertarian principles appropriate to a democracy but antithetical to the oligarchical views of Antiphon the Statesman involved in the anti-democratic coup of 411. [See W. K C. Guthrie, The Sophists (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971)
A. "Nature" requires liberty
On Truth juxtaposes the repressive nature of convention and law nomos with "nature," physis especially human nature. Nature is envisaged as requiring spontaneity and freedom, in contrast to the often gratuitous restrictions imposed by institutions. "Most of the things which are legally just are [none the less]...inimical to nature. By law it has been laid down for the eyes what they should see and what they should not see; for the ears what they should hear and they should not hear; for the tongue what it should speak, and what it should not speak; for the hands what they should do and what they should not do...and for the mind what it should desire, and what it should not desire."
Repression means pain, whereas it is nature (human nature) to shun pain.
Elsewhere, Antiphon wrote: "Life is like a brief vigil, and the duration of life like a single day, as it were, in which having lifted our eyes to the light we give place to other who succeed us." Mario Untersteiner comments: "If death follows according to nature, why torment its opposite, life, which is equally according to nature? By appealing to this tragic law of existence, Antiphon, speaking with the voice of humanity, wishes to shake off everything that can do violence to the individuality of the person." [Mario Untersteiner, The Sophists, tr. Kathleen Freeman (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1954) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971, p. 247]
B. "Nature" requires equality
Furthermore, Antiphon anticipated the natural rights theories of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and the Declaration of Independence by identifying nature as human nature, that is, what all human beings have in common, which makes them equal by nature. Since by our nature, we are all equally human, then no one is by nature the master or servant of anyone else. Antiphon derided invidious distinctions of class and nationality. He wrote: "[Those born of illustrious fa]thers we respect and honour, whereas those who come from an undistinguished house we neither respect nor honour. In this we behave like barbarians towards one another . For by nature we all equally, both barbarians and Greeks, have an entirely similar origin: for it is fitting to fulfil the natural satisfactions which are necessary to all men: all have the ability to fulfil these in the same way, and in all this none of us is different either as barbarian or as Greek; for we all breathe into the air with mouth and nostrils...." (quoted in Untersteiner, p. 252)
By identifying "nature" with liberty and equality, Antiphon the Sophist differentiated himself sharply from Antiphon the Oligarch. He obviously repudiated the Platonic/Aristotelian political conception of "nature" as mandating hierarchy and inequality. And, most importantly, he emerged as one of the earliest Western source of modern theories of natural rights. As such, he deserves significant recognition.
References
- Edition, with commentary, by Eduard Maetzner (1838)
- text by Friedrich Blass (1881)
- R. C. Jebb, Attic Orators
- Plutarch, Vitae X. Oratorum
- Philostratus, Vit. Sophistarum, i. 15
- van Cleef, Index Antiphonteus, Ithaca, N. Y. (1895)
- [Antiphon]
External links
- John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson. [] at the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.
| Attic Orators |
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| Antiphon | Andocides | Lysias | Isocrates| Isaeus | Aeschines | Lycurgus | Demosthenes | Hypereides | Dinarchus |
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