Felsefe Dünyası

Öz

The saying “Man is the measure of all things” [man-measure/homo mensura], rather than being an epistemological assertion, has a resonance which disturbs the mind like a moral imperative, but also keeps oneself away from modesty. Numerous interpretations are made on what Protagoras intended to mean by this expression. However, what is certain is that, in the intellectual history of mankind only by means of this expression it became possible that human being advanced to become the authority of criterion by means of placing a radical distance to itself. Consequently, man rendered himself and thus thought itself the subject matter of philosophical criticism.
Protagoras was born in Abdera where the governing intellectual atmosphere was determined by the radical separation from myth, which started with the philosophers of Miletus and continued with Eleatic philosophers. Changing historical and social conditions make turning of intellectual endeavor from nature to human inevitable because the phenomenal world of the philosophers of nature, and the principle and measure of this world do not meet the requirement of explaining the human nature and the sphere of values. Thus, Protagoras’ proposal of man-measure becomes the key proposal for an intellectual transformation projected in the spheres of being, knowledge and the totality of values. In addition, the question on the status of the “man” which is the measure, the question whether it is the individual or the species, results in the archaic discussion which starts between Protagoras and Socrates, and continues until today. The main purpose of this paper is to manifest the essential emphasis of the man-measure statement through reviewing main claims of this discussion which is grounded on this statement.