Rhetoricians and Dictators Assignment PDF
Added on 2021-02-08
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STUDENT ID: 1807822Does Socrates really prove, against Polus, that "rhetoricians and dictators are the least powerfulmembers of their communities" (466d)?The Gorgias is one of Plato’s early-middle Socratic dialogues and seeks to understand the nature andvalue of rhetoric (‘art of persuasion’) as well as the nature ofeudaimonia(‘happiness’) and its relationto morality. For Socrates, these two issues are interconnected; rhetoric involves persuading others inorder to get things you desire which in turn should allow you to lead thehappy life. However,Socrates’ view on ethics involving the comprise of one’s personal interests for those of the widercommunityin the pursuit of virtues whichmeans there is an inherent tension between the good lifeand the ethical life. Yet, by holdingvirtue as a necessary andsufficientcondition for eudaimonia, thegood life is the ethical life. As Socrates later pointsoutto the Sophists who haveentertainedinadebatewith him, rhetoric is notatechne but merelyanexperiential, empiricalknackthatproducesgratification and pleasure (462b-c).1As aconsequence, it wields little value withitsorators alongsidedictators being the least powerful members of the communityand, by appealing to the masses, neverpursue their own desires but rather – thinking it better – subjugate their will to thearbitrary whims oftheir audience (466 d-e).There are three key interlocuters whom Socrates holds a discussion with: Gorgias; Polus; Callicles.Although the focus is on Polus, it is important to look at Socrates’ argument with Gorgias – whichsets up the definition of rhetoric.Although professed by the Delphic Oracle “[o]f al men living Socrates most wise”2, Socrates claimsto have very little knowledge of rhetoric when speaking with Gorgias and relies upon the elenchus toascertain the essential nature of rhetoric. The Socratic Method can thus be seen as the midwife ofthought and through asking questions of the form “What is X” [in this case rhetoric], Socrates seeksclarity over the aporia (‘puzzlement’) that arises from the Sophists’ long speeches, riddled withlogical inconsistences – as is the case with Gorgias. By consistently questioning the rigorousness ofGorgias’ explanation as to ‘what is rhetoric’, Socrates seeks to identify all the necessary and sufficientconditions to class X as rhetoric. Take, for example, the Set “R” which denotes “rhetoric”; a goodSocratic definition of “R” should account for all and only R elements to be included in Set R. Thiswould properly account for the intension and extension of the concept since it details the conditionssomething has to fill to meet the concept as well as the scope being sufficiently spread. Initially, Gorgias’ definition of rhetoric is very broad seeing it as the expertise concerned withspeaking, yet Socrates is not satisfied (449d – 450c). By the third iteration, Gorgias extends thisdefinition further by stating rhetoric achieves its results through speaking and whose result ispersuasion; this result being the fundamental purpose behind such an activity (453b). Yet, Socratesstill does not consider this claim as being substantive knowledge since the notion of ‘persuasion’ is fartoo broad. For Socrates, rhetoric-based persuasion is not focused on producing justified, true,undeniable knowledge and educating others but rather produce probable beliefs through convincingtheir audience. Here, Gorgias in order to praise rhetoric highlights its value is derived from the powerto be universally applied as almost every accomplishment falls within the scope of rhetoric (456a) anda rhetorician can persuade a crowd about anything he likes (457a-b). It is perhaps here in Gorgias’pride that boxes him into a position which allows Socrates to attack rhetoric as not even being anexpertise (techne) but a ‘knack’ (462c).This irks Polus who believe Gorgias only accepts Socrates’ claims since it would shame him to denypublicly. Polus then calls for Socrates to establish the nature of rhetoric. Socrates holds that rhetoric issimply a knack at producing pleasure and gratification, not an expertise, since the orator is not awareof what is beneficial to the people. Yet, Polus critiques for Socrates for being misguided in his focus1 All citations from the text of Gorgias will refer to Waterfield, R (ed.) (2008) Plato: Gorgias. Oxford: Oxford University Press2 Hicks, R. D. (trans.) (1925) Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume II, Books 6-10 Cambridge:Harvard University Press, p. 37
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