Plato: Gorgias 1

In this session, we will read the following section:

📘 Session 1: PDF pp. 18–42

(25 pages)
Covers: Socrates meets Gorgias; “What is oratory?”; persuasion vs. knowledge.
Ends just before Polus becomes the main respondent.

Plato. Gorgias. Translated, with introduction and notes, by Donald J. Zeyl. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1987.

If you want to order a drink beforehand, please arrive 10 minutes early.

See you!

Summary of Gorgias

Plato’s Gorgias is a lively and dramatic dialogue in which Socrates debates three prominent figures associated with rhetoric: Gorgias, Polus, and Callicles. On the surface, the dialogue is about the nature and value of rhetoric—the art of persuasive speech—but it quickly expands into deeper ethical questions about power, justice, pleasure, and the good life.

With Gorgias, Socrates asks whether rhetoric is a true craft (like medicine) or merely a knack for persuasion that ignores truth.

With Polus, the conversation turns to whether wrongdoing benefits the wrongdoer—especially when it leads to power and domination.

With Callicles, the dialogue becomes more confrontational, challenging the idea that “might makes right” and arguing for the intrinsic value of living a just, ordered life over one driven by appetite and power.

Despite its unresolved ending, Gorgias gives readers a rich examination of moral philosophy and the contrast between appearance and reality, persuasion and truth, and power and virtue.