Man is the measure of all things

Man is the measure of all things is a well-known adage of the Greek sophist Protagoras of Abdera in which he implies that the world is relative to the man who measures it.

Actually, I disagree with the general premise that everyone is relative or subjective and that objectivity cannot be found anywhere. But not for that reason I discredit the phrase and see that it also hides a truth.

Man is the measure of all things, says Protagoras, and it means that things are as they seem to each man. For example, if I say that I am tall, it is because compared to all the men I have seen, I am taller than average. No specific height guarantees you to be tall. I can be tall in places like South America and be of average height in Scandinavia for example.

The reality is that from seeing men so much I have abstracted an idea of how much a man measures and my mind has taken an average to classify what it means to be tall, short, or be of normal stature.

The adjectives tall or short, are really relative, there is nothing that is objectively tall but that everything is tall compared to something that is short. The same happens with what is strong or weak, large or small, much or little, cold or hot, etc.

Everything that is of this type is dual and relative, and depends on the man who measures it to be.

That man is the measure of all things means that only I know when it is enough, how much is too much, and what is the best. There are, in reality, two worlds that coexist with each other, the objective and external world, in which all things are found and in which we measure things objectively. And the subjective world in which we live with our perceptions in which things are as they seem to our eyes.

Man is the measure of all things means that there is an entire world, our world, a dual world, in which our opinions are true as long as there is no objective truth attainable in these terms.

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