Gorgias: The Nature Of Rhetoric

In Plato’s Gorgias, Socrates and the title character participate in a discussion that aims to discover the nature of rhetoric. Gorgias declares himself to be a rhetorician and one who practices rhetoric. Socrates wants to know what exactly this means. Gorgias distinguishes between the art of rhetoric and other crafts and arts by stating that what rhetoric produces is persuasion. He claims that rhetoric enables one to persuade judges, members of the assembly, and others involved in governmental issues. Gorgias boasts that a rhetorician can make anyone his slave through the use of persuasion. When pressed further by Socrates, Gorgias reveals the domain of persuasion specific to rhetoric because other arts, such as teaching, have the power to persuade as well. Gorgias claims that rhetorical persuasion is used in courts and public meetings and is thus concerned with justice and injustice (454b). Socrates continues to clarify the issues at stake in the conversation. Gorgias agrees that there is a difference between knowledge and belief when asked by Socrates. The two also agree that persuasion is used both for bringing about true learning as well as conviction or belief.

He sees it as mere flattery and pandering to the crowd. Rhetoric, as argued by Socrates, is a type of persuasion that is not based in knowledge and therefore leads to beliefs. It may also lead to false beliefs instead of true knowledge. Rhetoric, as Gorgias and the other sophists use it, works in a crowd to persuade regardless of the truth. Socrates does not believe that the rhetorical refutation used by orators and rhetoricians is an admirable thing and calls it a “knack.” Rhetoric, for Socrates, is not an art or a matter of expertise, but just a knack for pleasing audiences. Further, rhetoric puts on the mask of being good for the soul but it only gets at what is pleasant. It gratifies the audience but does not aim at their