Nature,Nomos And Justice

Antiphon's On Truth has been widely concerned by western scholars once it was discovered,which is very important for us to understand the sophistic movement in the fifth century BC,especially the discussion of the conflict between nature and nomos.In Antiphon's On Truth,his central concern is why there is evil in the world.Unlike Hesiod,who started from the same problem and taught people to abide by nomos and pursue justice,Antiphon pointed his criticism at nomos and justice.In Antiphon's view,there are two dilemmas in nomos and justice: firstly,nomos is soft and weak,nomos can neither prevent evil,nor let justice be done in the punishment after the event;Secondly,the justice taught by nomos is conflicting with each other.This is especially reflected in court trials,whether witnesses or jurors,their behavior will lead to the traditional concept of justice inherent conflict,and may lead to more injustices.The reason why Antiphon looked at nomos and justice is the fact that nature has become a new measure of everything.This undoubtedly benefited from the rise of philosophy in ancient Greece,and the philosophy to explore nature on the premise of questioning the authority of traditional theology.If natural philosophers focus more on the exploration of the universe,then Antiphon,as a sophist,has turned his inquiry into nature to human itself,and his inquiry into human nature undoubtedly means deepening the concept of nature of natural philosophers.Beside,he inherits the thought of natural philosopher in two aspects: firstly,the thinking of explaining soul from object and body;secondly,the pursuit of identity.Antiphon regarded life and death as the most basic natural facts from the perspective of the human body,while life was beneficial and death was unfavorable.From this piont of view,it was concluded that the purpose of man's action is to seek life and avoid death,and that everyone pursues the self-preservation of the body.In pursuit of physical happiness,he finally established a universal and equal assumption of human nature: man is a self-interested individual who pursues happiness.In the context of this basic theory of human nature,one of the key difficulties is that everyone's demands for self-preservation are in conflict with each other.And the only feasible way to resolve this difficulty without violating the principle of equality behind his theory of humanity is to establish a contract that does not harm each other.As a result,Antiphon rightly understands nomos and justice as the product of human contracts.In Antiphon's view,the purpose of human life is no longer justice but advantage,however,nomos and justice,as possible conditions for personal self-preservation,though man-made but indispensable,are in the nature of human self-preservation.It is always the bondage of man's nature,so Antiphon's practical teaching is to make people choose when nomos is the most important thing and when nature is the priority as wisely as possible.