Gorgias

Plato’s Gorgias is firmly set in the cultural and political climate of Athens in the late fifth and early fourth centuries BCE, the nadir of what is often called the “Classical Period” (479-323 BCE). The dialogue debates issues that were of great interest at the time, including the nature of oratory and the social responsibility of politicians. In the Gorgias, as in many of Plato’s dialogues, oratory is construed in opposition to true philosophy (philosophia), a notion first popularized by Plato himself in his writings. Whereas philosophy seeks knowledge of the truth, oratory is concerned merely with dominating the masses through persuasion and manipulation.

Plato’s disapproval of oratory is connected to his broader disapproval of sophistry. The sophists were itinerant intellectuals who taught their pupils how to speak effectively (oratory) alongside other arts deemed important in public and intellectual life. For their instruction, they typically charged a fee. Plato presented the sophists as predatory and dishonest teachers who attracted clients by overturning everything that was traditional and noble, and even today the sophists of ancient Greece are commonly seen through Plato’s eyes. The sophists themselves, however, seem to have regarded their service as the instilling of “excellence” or “virtue” (arete) in their pupils.

In the fifth century, all the great orators and sophists of the Greek world tended to congregate in Athens. Protagoras of Abdera, perhaps the first self-styled sophist, came to Athens around 450, and soon after figures such as Hippias of Elis and Gorgias of Leontini followed his example. These intellectuals were drawn to Athens because of the unique political opportunities the city offered. In Classical Athens, the government was democratic, meaning that important issues were debated before an assembly of citizens. In order to succeed in this kind of political environment, consequently, aspiring politicians needed to develop strong oratorical and debating skills. Unsurprisingly, Plato was as critical of democracy as he was of oratory and sophistry, preferring forms of government that were, in his view, less susceptible to the fickle whims of the masses.

Orators in Classical Athens taught the right way to speak by developing oratorical strategies as well as logical arguments, logoi. Among orators and sophists there arose the idea that every argument, or logos, had a response or counterargument. Hence the famous claim made by the sophist Protagoras that he could make the weaker cause overcome the stronger—in other words, that a skilled orator could make even a weak case persuasive if they had sufficient training. In the view assumed by Plato (and Plato’s Socrates), this ability to bolster the “weaker cause” made oratory very dangerous. Plato’s Gorgias even claims that the true object of oratory is to produce conviction through speech (though in another dialogue, Plato has another orator and sophist, Protagoras, characterize his goal as the dissemination of good advice).

In Gorgias there is also the idea that orators wield their art to dominate their fellow citizens without necessarily teaching their students to use their power morally. Plato’s Socrates, unlike the sophists and orators of his day, does not rely on long display speeches but prefers to seek the truth through a method of question-and-answer, the elenchus. It seems that Plato viewed this method as better suited to philosophy, which he envisioned as seeking knowledge and truth.