English Rhetoric
Illustrate the Sophists’ roles in early instruction or oratory and persuasion, including what/how they taught and why Plato was critical of their practices.
Describe the main arguments presented in Gorgias.
Examine Gorgias’s claim that “nothing exists.”
Summarize Callicles’s position as regards passions; how does this relate to his views on ethical and social responsibility?
Answer all the above questions in one or two paragraphs each.
ANSWER
Sophists were teachers in ancient Greece and would specialise in different fields among them philosophy, mathematics, music, athletics, astronomy or rhetoric. Their teachings followed a framework of scepticism where they questioned conventional beliefs including the belief in the gods. Plato criticised sophists because he did not believe in their devotion and disapproved their culture of collection of fees for their knowledge. His admonition was plainly evident when he insisted that Socrates was not a sophist through the fact that he neither collected fees and his devotion and commitment to his work was unquestionable and the direct cause of what led to his death. He further pointed out that sophists applied deception in their methodologies and were more interested in wealth and power; winning and succeeding rather than true value wisdom and truth.
Gorgias was one such sophist. The main arguments presented in Gorgias followed a violation of the non-contradiction principle where “if the non-existent exists, it will both exist and not exist at the same time” (IEP.utm.edu). His major arguments were in art, power, evil, temperance and virtue. In art, Gorgias discusses the difference between true arts and false art where false ones build an “incorrect impression of good by means of the pleasant” (Segal 1962). On power, Gorgias views power as the ability to exert rule on others with a goal for individual satisfaction. On Evil, Gorgias observes that evil spring from wrongful acts where these actions by nature comprise actions that bring shame and pain. Temperance in Gorgias comprises a virtue of being in possession of an ability to achieve discipline and self-control. Lastly, virtue in Gorgias marks the central theme of its entirety which is determined as the fundamental quest for a philosopher and a sophist.
The claim that ‘nothing exists’ and that even if it exists then it stays unknown and if known cannot be communicated or revealed to another by sophist Gorgias was infamous and has been severely criticised (IEP.utm.edu). The claim examines the principles known by humankind and those that are unknown. In today’s world, this applies to various fields including neurobiology and quantum physics where theorist have been able to prove that only a fraction of our brains is utilised and even beyond that, our planet is a very small speck in the wide and wild universe. Theorists such as Albert Einstein thought of time being relative meaning that even our existence exists in one point of time and does not on another. Basically, nothing exists and even of non-existence exists, we would not exist to understand it. Gorgias was labelled a nihilist and an ontological sceptic for this notion but with the accumulation of more information and understanding of ourselves and our world, the idea is believed to have some merit.
Calicles believed that people are allowed and in fact encouraged to have many kinds of desires instead of attempting to suppress them. Pursuing passions according to Calicles has the capability to enable the achievement of maximum happiness. Questions on this by Socrates was whether self-control and moderation applied to which Calicles thought as unnecessary and inhibiting factors to human nature. On ethical and social responsibility, self-control is vital, just because a person desires his or her neighbours’ fruits does not mean that he or she goes to the yard and picks them. Restraint is important and something Calicles failed to account for.
References
Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (IEP). Gorgias (483—375 B.C.E.). Retrieved on 25th January 2020 from https://iep.utm.edu/gorgias/#:~:text=Gorgias%20begins%20his%20argument%20by,is%20either%20eternal%20or%20generated.
Segal, C. P. (1962). Gorgias and the Psychology of the Logos. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 66, 99-155.
