Plato's approach to rheotoric
Many of Plato's exchanges in Gorgias are full of anger, misunderstanding, and cutting rhetoric. The intent of these exchanges are to distinguish rhetoric from philosophy. According to Socrates, the difference between the two is that rhetoric is a verbal performance meant to create praise or blame, value judgments, and flattery. On the other hand, philosophy is concerned with the understanding and wisdom as opposed to reputation. While Gorgias advocates that rhetoric simply involves language Socrates qualifies the statement by adding that persuasion is always the goal of that language. This qualification of persuasion allows Socrates to attack Gorgias by stating that in rhetoric the speaker is not a truth speaker and does not convey knowledge to his audience. Like poetry, rhetoric's intent is to flatter and gratify the audience, as opposed to bestowing true knowledge on them. Because rhetoric is simply a form of public speaking and meant to gratify, as opposed to educate, its dangers lie in potential ways in which rhetoric is deployed. While Gorgias praises rhetoric for its ability to twist language so as to surpass the expert in the field, Socrates criticizes rhetoric for faking knowledge. He states it is only opinion, which is
Socrates goes on to outline that to engage in good rhetoric one must possess an intimate knowledge of the kinds of souls, the kinds of rhetoric, and the effect of rhetoric on the soul. Socrates' questions demonstrate the lack of precision in language accompanying Gorgias' rhetorical performance. While Socrates would claim that we will recognize truth when we see it because we already know it, Gorgias would counter that knowledge is limited to the beliefs and opinions that a community accepts as knowledge. The political power was considered in the democratic Athens to be literally consisting in the art of persuasion. Thus, the only interesting question becomes how does a belief or claim comes to be accepted as knowledge as opposed to searching for this knowledge. Socrates argues that rhetoric is an art and not just an artless practice. The common question of the two dialogues concerns how one should live one's life (G, 500c). It appeared probably very simple and easy for the people to learn and people was excited about acquiring such a skill. This ties in with opinion being a slippery enterprise through the use of language. This is because humans are vulnerable to the powers of language. Knowledge in this sense was flatly denied by Protagoras and his followers. This account reflects that language affects people. Socrates states that we cannot, "acquire any appreciable knowledge of the nature of the soul without knowing the nature of the whole man" (P, 270c). If indeed knowledge is relative to a given individual at all, the wisdom, a system of knowledge, must be non-existent at all and must become non-sense. They can be manipulated into believing truth when it is simply another version of opinion.
Common topics in this essay:
Gorgias Socrates,
Socrates Plato,
Gods Socrates,
According Socrates,
Virtue Heracles,
Constitution Protagoras,
Gorgias Socrates',
Heracles Crossroads,
,
Phaedrus Socrates,
rhetoric art,
slippery insecure,
truth socrates,
opinion slippery,
rhetoric philosophy,
vice virtue heracles,
gods socrates,
rhetoric gorgias,
slippery enterprise,
political success,
art rhetoric,
opinion slippery insecure,
relation gods socrates,
|
Acceptance Essays
