(Σοφιστής), the name which inquirers after the οὐσία originally assumed to themselves in Greece, previous to the time of Pythagoras, who is said to have originated the more modest title of philosopher. In time the term sophist came to imply those who, like Protagoras, Prodicus, and Critias, &c., believed that the οὐσία was not only unattainable, but that no relative degree of it was possible for the human faculties. This scepticism as to science naturally gave rise to eloquence and other branches of art, which the sophists taught often with much éclat in the various towns of Greece. Protagoras' maxim that "man is the measure of the universe," indicates how thorough-going was the scepticism of the sophists. Plato, who allows no opportunity to escape him of holding up these men to scorn, is censured by Lewes in his History of Philosophy, and by Grote in his History of Greece, for his unfair representations of this class.