Wise men have no unified organization and different political attitudes. They are not an independent faction, but their ideas and basic tendencies are relatively consistent in theory, so some people call them "wise men". The basic philosophy of the wise can be summarized as follows:
Cognitive theory of sensitivity, relativism and skepticism
They accepted Heraclitus' thought that "everything is changing", affirmed the authenticity of the changing sensation phenomenon of movement, and opposed the Elijah school's view of denying the role of perceptual knowledge. However, they turned to relativism and skepticism, thinking that knowledge is feeling, and asserting that everyone's feelings are true. The same thing, if you feel cold, you feel cold, and I feel neither cold nor cold. Regardless of truth, personal feelings are the standard of truth. Protagoras's famous proposition "Man is the measure of all things" is a typical expression of this thought.
Ideological factors of naive dialectics
Protagoras developed empedocles's thought that perceptual things are a mixture of opposites, and further proposed that every problem has opposing aspects. Through three arguments about "non-existence", gorgias refuted the metaphysical view that Elijah School denied non-existence, revealed the difference between thinking and existence, and touched the connection and transformation between existence and non-existence.
Social historical view of traditional theory
They believe that politics, legal system and moral norms are neither natural nor created by God's will. They are formed in the long-term life of human beings, and they are the established products formed by people in order to avoid being destroyed in cannibalism. Protagoras proposed that the polis originated from the "self-protection" of people, that justice and virtue should belong to all people, and that law and morality can only exist when they are beneficial to people. This is the truth. Hippia believes that law does not exist naturally, but is artificially created by tyrants, and the compulsion of law violates human nature. In Trasimaku's view, the justice of law is the embodiment of the interests of the strong. All these reflected the desire of Democrats at that time to break old traditions and old ideas.
Doubt and deny God
In order to oppose the bondage of traditional ideas and religious myths, they tried to belittle the authority of God and deny the traditional image of God. Protagoras thinks that God is an agnostic. People invented language on their own, made houses, clothes, shoes and beds, and got health care from the soil. Prodico denied that God's attributes were immortal. In his view, God is only imagined by people for their own interests. People name these things God because they see that the sun, the moon and rivers are good for them. According to Chretien, God is indifferent to man's fate. In this way, human dignity and authority can be established, and the emergence of the wise school has become the origin of humanistic spirit.