The Practice and Goal of Oratory
Gorgias, a dialogue by Plato written around 380 B.C.E., primarily explores the nature of oratory, or the art of public speaking. In Ancient Greece, oratory, or rhetoric, was central to social and political life. Particularly in Athens, any free citizen could speak before political bodies such as the Assembly, Council, or law courts, using their persuasive skills to influence important decisions. Oratory, then, was an important tool for realizing one’s political ambitions. Traveling…
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Justice, Injustice, and the Treatment of the Soul
After Socrates questions Gorgias about the practice of oratory, debunking some of Gorgias’s claims about it, a man named Polus who has been following the conversation indignantly questions Socrates. If Socrates doesn’t think Gorgias understands oratory properly, then what does Socrates say it is—what sort of a craft is it? To Polus’s surprise, Socrates replies that he doesn’t think oratory is a craft at all. A craft, like medicine, is concerned with bringing…
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The Pleasant Life vs. the Good Life
After his debates with Gorgias and Polus, Socrates builds on his arguments about oratory and the soul in an exchange with politician Callicles. Callicles argues that if too many people engage in philosophy, or if a person engages in it for too long, humanity will be undone. According to Callicles, someone who engages in philosophy excessively is ignorant of what constitutes a good life—not just in public fields like law or business, but…
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Philosophy vs. Politics
Besides his critique of philosophy as supposedly ignorant of what makes for a good life, Callicles also argues that philosophy is unsuited to public life. If a person truly wants to be useful to society, in other words, they should pursue politics (including oratory) instead of philosophy. What good, for example, is Socrates’s argument about suffering injustice, if Socrates found himself hauled off to prison and completely tongue-tied when he faced his accuser…
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