Plato. “Gorgias”

Plato. “Gorgias” Trans. Benjamin Jowett. The Internet Classics Archives. Web. 2
November 2009. < http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/gorgias.html>.

“Socrates: And now let us have from you, Gorgias the truth about rhetoric: which you would admit (would you not) to be one of those arts which act always and fulfil all their ends through the medium of words” (6). =B

“GORGIAS: That good, Socrates, which is trutl7y the greatest being that which gives to men freedom in their own persons, and to individuals the power of ruling over others in their several states” (7). =B

“GORGIAS: What is there greater than the word which persuades the judges in the courts, or the senators in the council, or the citizens in the assembly, or at any other political meeting.—if you have the power of uttering this word, you will have the physician your slave, and the trainer your slave, and the money-maker of whom you talk will be found to gather treasures, not for himself, but for you who are able to speak and to persuade the multitude” (7). =B

“SOCRATES: . . .rhetoric is the artificer of persuasion, having this and no other business, and that this is her crown and end. Do you know any other effect of rhetoric over and above that of producing persuasion?” =B

“GORGIAS: . . .rhetoric is the art of persuasion in courts of law and other assemblies, as I was just now saying, and about the just and unjust” (9). =B

“GORGIAS: . . .in a contest with a man of any other profession the rhetorician more than any one would have the power of getting himself chosen, for he can speak more persuasively to the multitude than any of them, and on any subject” (11). =B

“SOCRATES; And the same holds of the relation of rhetoric to all the other arts; the rhetorician need not know the truth about things; he has only to discoversome way of persuading the ignorant that he has more knowledge than those who know?” (13). =B

Cookery and rhetoric are part of the same profession. (17).

“SOCRATES: In my opinion then, Gorgias, the whole of which rhetoric is a part is not an art at all, but the habit of a bold and ready wit, which knows how to manage mankind: this habit I sum up under the word ‘flatery’, and it appears to me to have many other parts, one of which is cookery, which may seem to be an art, but, as I maintain, is only an experience or routine and not an art:--another part is rhetoric, and the art of attiring and sophistry are two others: thus there are four branches,(18). =B

“SOCRATES. . .that great power is a benefit to a man if his actions turn out to his advantage, and that this is the meaning of great power; and if not, then his power is an evil and is no power” (26). =B

“SOCRATES: but in my opinion, Polus, the unjust or doing of the unjust actions is miserable in any case—more miserable, however, if he be not punished and does not meet with retribution, and less miserable if he be punished and meets with retribution at the hands of gods and men” (28). =B

“SOCRATES: Tell me then:--you say, do you not, that in the rightly developed man the passions ought not to be controlled, but that we should let them grow to the utmost and somehow or other satisfy them, and that is virtue?” (49). =B

“SOCRATES: I am contented with the admission that rhetoric is of two sorts; one, which is mere flattery and disgraceful declamation; the other, which is noble and aims at the training and improvement of the souls of the citizens, and strives to say what is best, “ (63). =B

Reminds me of Augustine’s ability to see that rhetoric can be used for both evil and good.

“SOCRATES: And will not the true rhetorician who is honest and understands his art have his eye fixed upon these, in all the words which he addresses to the souls of men, and in all hi actions both in what he gives and in what he takes away? Will not his aim be to implant justice in the souls of his citizens and take away injustice?” (65). =B

“SOCRATES: I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict” (82). =B

“Let us, then, take the argument as our guide which has revealed to us that the best way of life is to practice justice and every virtue in life and death” (83). =B