Gorgias- Philosophy

Socrates on Oratory , Desire , Power , and Good in Gorgias 447a-468e

To critically assess the language of Socrates within the work Gorgias a look will be taken at the key steps to refutation and how Gorgias , and later Polus , may have failed in his attempt , and further , how Socrates makes the argument that tyrants , like orators or politicians , have no real power and that they are unable to act upon their own desires because they are crippled by the very power that makes them powerful

When Socrates and Chaerephon arrive at the lecture of

Gorgias Callicles makes the blithe joke that Socrates never lowers himself to such an argument that he is about to make - but he , like an arrogant rooster , forces his way into a refutation that Gorgias never knew was coming . By way of manipulating Chaerephon into asking the questions that spark the dialogue , Socrates gets Gorgias to admit that he is a rhetorician , and that even the ability to teach others the way of rhetoric is attributed to him

However , in his attempt at precision in language , Gorgias does exactly what Socrates intended to accuse him of doing - being unable to define his being and purpose in life purely because he sought to , and admitted he was best at , explaining things in the simplest of terms

Socrates refutation follows to first get Gorgias to define something then to expound upon that with niceties and confusion , getting Gorgias to further his argument and , essentially , dig himself into the hole...