Gorgias

Estos son algunos temas desarrollados en la seccin:

-

El paso de un Scrates que pregunta, a un Scrates que responde y

pone en cuestin el mtodo que suele usar, contrastndolo con los
mtodos de la retrica
La naturaleza de la retrica: qu es la retrica?
Es la retrica una tcnica (tekhne)?
El vnculo de la retrica con la pregunta por la vida que merece ser
vivida
Una teora de la accin o un rasgo de una teora de la accin con una
fuerte base intelectualista, y su relacin con el poder, la justicia y el
bien. Particularmente, la relacin de la justicia con la accin humana
La exposicin de opiniones que Scrates mantiene.

In general, the assumption has been that Platos aim in the Gorgias is to draw a
sharp line of demarcation between the activities of philosophy and rhetoric,
favoring philosophy over its obviously inferior opponent. Commentators on the
Gorgias have suggested numerous distinctions between philosophy and
rhetoric: (1) philosophy requires the consistency of ones beliefs, while rhetoric
consists of merely verbal refutation; (2) philosophy requires a commitment to
reason that the sophists lack; (3) the philosopher is committed to a different
understanding of power for example, the power to make others virtuous
rather than domination over others; (4) philosophers possess a refined selfknowledge that the rhetoricians lack; (5) philosophy values technical
knowledge while rhetoric does not; or (6) philosophy is linked to a specific set
of moral claims.
three different distinctions made between philosophy and rhetoric: (1) the
contrast between art (techne) and rhetoric in the dispute with Gorgias; (2) the
emphasis placed upon reliance on ones own beliefs in the section with Polus;
and (3) the description of philosophy as unchanging and rhetoric as changing in
the section with Callicles. (McCoy p.86)

The discussion concerns nothing more nor less than happiness (472cc) and how
one ought to live (487e, 501c, 527c)
A set of statements which are out of tune with each other. How is it possible to
harmonize the claim that rhetoric can never be unjust, since it ever makes
speeches about justice, with the claim that the orator may use his rhetoric
unjustly?

Socrates denies that rhetoric is an art because art implies knowledge of its
subject matter, and rhetoric lacks knowledge, specifically knowledge of good
and evil. He had already suggested to Gorgias that rhetoric is a trick of
persuasion without knowledge (45ga-b). He now dismisses it as a mere knack
of producing gratification and pleasure (462c).
The virtue is to the soul as health is to the body
The between and knack, techne and empeiria, is infelicitous