In the beginning of Plato's work entitled Gorgias, he writes of a dialog between Socrates and Gorgias. In this dialog, philosopher Socrates meets with rhetorician Gorgias to discuss the true meaning of the art of rhetoric.
             Rhetoric is a term that is defined strongly on whom you are asking to define it. Webster's Dictionary states that rhetoric is "the art of expression and the persuasive use of language." The Greek-English Lexicon states that the word is based on the "root rhêt-, which designates something that is stated or specified. The related word rhêtra designates "the laws" that constitute the social contract between a people and its political leader." In one of Plato's other works, Phaedrus, Socrates asks, "Must not the art of rhetoric, taken as a whole, be a kind of influencing of the mind by means of words, not only in courts of law and other public gatherings, but in private places also?" I.A. Richards states, in The Philosophy of Rhetoric that "Rhetoric, I shall urge, should be a study of misunderstanding and its remedies." It is clear that there are many gray areas in the actual meaning of the word 'rhetoric' and, consequentially, the word 'rhetorician.' The discussion between Gorgias and Socrates attempts to speak meaning into the term 'rhetoric.'
             Socrates begins the discussion by arriving late to a speech given by Gorgias, where the infamous philosopher is promptly invited to ask Gorgias any question he likes. Socrates chooses to ask Gorgias, "What is the art which you profess?" and "...with what is rhetoric concerned?" In the first part of this discussion, it is stated by Socrates and agreed by Gorgias that rhetoric is in fact "the artificer of persuasion, having this and no other business." Therefore rhetoric is not to educate, but only to persuade. The questions follow: Is there rhetoric and truth or more than that? Is persuasion both knowledge and opinion or just one or the other?
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