The Rhetorical Power of Socratic Dialectic: Socrates' Refutation of Gorgias (original) (raw)
Related papers
Rivals in Persuasion: Gorgianic Sophistic Versus Socratic Rhetoric
Polis: The Journal for Greek Political Thought, Vol. 23/1 (2006)
According to Plato and Aristotle, the confusion of sophistry and philosophy in the opinion of Socrates' fellow citizens in Athens ultimately led to his trial and execution. This essay seeks to highlight and clarify the resemblance and the fundamental distinction between sophistry and philosophy, especially with respect to the art of rhetoric articulated by Gorgias in his Encomium of Helen and interrogated by Socrates in Plato's Gorgias. Rivals in their use of persuasive speeches, Gorgias and Socrates embody the quarrel between two competing modes of discourse and the ways of life that ineluctably result from their practice. Their public dispute centres on the aim or purpose of an art of rhetoric. This essay argues that Gorgias, though moved to silence by his conversation with Socrates in Plato's dialogue, disclosed to his inquisitor the true power of rhetoric, and thus the necessity to constrain rather than reject its use.
The object of this treatise is a comparison between Gorgias and Socrates views on rhetoric, namely the truth in rhetoric. The two prominent scholars of Greek antiquity, Gorgias as an expert on rhetoric and Socrates as a well-known philosopher, have attempted to examine the basics of rhetoric. Democracy has made rhetoric a high value of ancient Greek society, as well as an approach to enunciate, review and argue in public on various issues. As a tool of public communication, addressed to the attendees to convince them regarding an issue submitted for discussion and to fulfill its mission in the best to society, rhetoric should have support in the truth. This is the point at which both ancient scholars agree. But the issue is seen from a different point of view, and both defending their own views bring arguments and counter-arguments, which are worth even today. The purpose of this paper is that, through confrontational approach and interpretation, to set diverse views and to reach a conclusion on the truth in rhetoric.
Gorgias Reloaded: A New-found Dialogue between Gorgias and Socrates
2017
In the Elysian Fields, Socrates to his surprise meets his old rhetorical adversary Gorgias-who has, in the meantime, come to think twice about some of the alleged errors that Socrates made him admit to in the Platonic dialogue about their original encounter. Among other things, Gorgias has had the advantage of gathering a few points from a certain young thinker hailing "from up North" (he presumably means Stagira). Thus equipped, he takes Socrates to task about several of his anti-rhetorical pronouncements from back then that Gorgias now feels he is in a position to challenge. SOCRATES Well, if that isn't-you can call me a sophist if that isn't-Gorgias! Old boy! Fancy meeting you herein the Elysian Fields! The Island of the Blessed! The very man who brought that awful nuisance, rhetoric, to Athens! I'd never have thought I'd live to see that. In fact, I didn't. GORGIAS No, you didn't see that one coming, did you, Socrates? And you know, it was only recently that they let us in, me and my gang-you know, the other sophists, Protagoras and Prodicus and Antisthenes and those guys. And why do think that is? You did that to us. You did such a great job dragging our names through the mud, smearing me and the other sophists or rhetoricians, as you call us, and thanks to you most philosophers until this day have detested us. Take a philosopher like John Locke, one of the bright lights who started the so-called Enlightenment-he said this in An Essay on Human Understanding (1690): "It is evident how much men love to deceive and be deceived, since rhetoric, that powerful instrument of error and deceit, has its established professors, is publicly taught, and has always been had in great reputation." He also said that rhetoric does nothing but "insinuate wrong ideas, move the passions, and thereby mislead the judgment"
Persuasion’s Ethical Force: Levinas, Gorgias and the Rhetorical Address
One of the most compelling-and idealized-narratives of the rhetorical tradition extols rhetoric as an alternative to violence. In this narrative, rhetoric holds a noble and privileged place: Argumentation and discourse can settle heated debates before situations devolve into bared fists, flashing knives, or deployed troops. Cicero's well-known version of this account holds that the highest articulation of humanist ideals are realized when persuasion-not force-is the instrument of political power. This classical opposition between rhetoric and force applies even to powerful systems of domination. An orator who successfully combines wisdom and eloquence can equalize asymmetrical power relations, making his voice heard despite the oppressive regime that wishes to silence it. For all of these reasons, according to this narrative, rhetoric possesses a high moral purpose because it can both prevent bloodshed and resist domination.
Philosophy & Rhetoric, 2006
Readers of this book will not find much in it about the "persuasion" and "rheto ric" they might expect to read about in this journal. Nor will they find in it the Appendici Critiche that appear in the original text, Michelstaedter's thesis en titled I concetti dipersuasione e rettorica [sic] in Platone eAristotele, which he submitted to the Faculty of Letters in Florence in 1910. But the version printed here by the editors (hereafter "VBD," as there is no indication of who did what) will no doubt appeal to those who dislike Plato and Aristotle, have the idea that
Lecture 3: Plato and Persuasion
Scholarly and Research Communication, 2021
Socrates conversed and Plato recorded, bringing together an entwined version of their notion of rhetoric. How do we balance absolute truth with opinion, belief, and conjecture? This lecture centres on the dialogue Gorgias plays to Socrates/Plato’s notion of rhetoric as a fully formed social practice; it illustrates the practice and study of persuasion. Socrate parla et Platon enregistra, réalisant ainsi une version combinée de leur notion de rhétorique. Comment équilibrer la vérité absolue avec l’opinion, la croyance, et l’hypothèse? Ce cours se focalise sur le dialogue de Gorgias relatif à la notion socratique/platonicienne de la rhétorique comme étant une pratique sociale complètement formée; le cours fournit une illustration de la pratique et de l’étude de la persuasion.
Plato’s Ambivalence about Rhetoric in the Gorgias
The main thesis of the present paper is that Plato's attitude towards rhetoric appears to have been complex to the point of ambivalent, for as one reads the Gorgias, one cannot avoid getting the impression that in spite of his overt castigation of rhetoric, the philosopher did covertly resort to it in the very dialogue. Thus, the article will seek to demonstrate that even though Platonic Socrates repudiated rhetoric understood as political demagoguery and cynical adulation, he did employ some sort of art of persuasion designed to inveigle his interlocutors into accepting a worldview that must have appeared extremely paradoxical for the then mentality.
Between Rhetoric and Sophistry: The Puzzling Case of Plato's Gorgias
Apeiron 53: 59-80, 2020
The case of Gorgias' profession has been an object of ongoing dispute among scholars. This is mainly because in some dialogues Plato calls Gorgias a rhetorician, in others a sophist. The purpose of this article is to show that a solution only emerges in the Gorgias, where Plato presents Gorgias' goals as a rhetorician and its associated arts. On this basis, Plato introduces a systematic division between genuine arts and fake arts, including rhetoric and sophistry, thereby identifying their conceptual differences and similarities. The paper concludes by arguing that Gorgias can be called both a rhetorician and a sophist, provided that the labeling is done from different perspectives.