As a sophist, I offer guiding knowledge and integrity to students who can eventually achieve political power, for I cannot, as I am originally from Sicily. Through sophistry, great minds are framed from merely witnessing rhetoric at the agora. I am a logographer, an orator and a teacher or rhetoric who continually preaches the art of persuasion. Most of my students whom not only learn these areas of expertise are also taught the notion of probability (controversia) and how to properly articulate arguments in order to persuade. In one 's own words they have the ability to shape what they need to say in superior fashion.
I am here to address how and why sophists are more influential than philosophers, collectively, from my account. Today I am speaking because no one has made an attempt to contest Platonic beliefs and disprove the Socratic Method. Today in my topoi I will be addressing three main areas, arite, public opinion, and Platonic beliefs. Through Plato’s dialectic perspective Socrates
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In all intents and purposes the way that Socrates engages the dialectic makes it very difficult to refute his points. In a comparable light, when interacting with Polus, Socrates does not tolerate Polus trying to counter his points. Whenever he tries, Socrates himself counters the argument without addressing Polus’ argument, and stating that they are in fact straying away from Plato’s dialectic. In dialect with Gorgias, Socrates states, “Well, perhaps I’ve done an absurd thing in not permitting you to make a long speech, while holding forth at the same length myself” (Plato 26). It is clear that Socrates is a hypocrite. He did not let Gorgias fully explain himself or even give him much of a chance. Adding insult to injury, Socrates states that rhetoric is flattery, then goes onto enagae in rhetoric with himself when Calicles decides to stop answering
When attempting to convince other to view an issue from a different standpoint, there are multiple different rhetorical strategies that can be utilized in order to effectively do so. In the article “Not by Math Alone,” by Sandra Day O’Connor and Roy Romer, the authors argue that school systems today lack the education needed to prepare students to take part in their government. O’Connor and Romer use a variety of persuasive techniques, including establishing credibility and presenting facts and evidence, to get the audience to see how rare civic learning is and why it is important for students to learn about these things. The authors instill trust in the audience as they provide information from credible sources that supports their purpose.
In my mind, the name Plato carried an indubitable authority. Despite that, I found myself contradicting his ideas. I completely rejected the idea of an absolute beauty only visible to an elite class of philosophers. When I voiced my opinions, some people nodded along while others pushed back. The instant I moved from disagreeing internally to verbally, I found a type of joy in the back and forth– a joy that came not from my being right, but from learning to defend my ideas and considering those of
One would expect Socrates to win against his non-philosophical interlocutors. However, this is not the case. The more the conversations proceed, the more they are infiltrated by anger and misunderstanding, the more one is under the impression that Socrates may well silence his interlocutors but he hardly persuades them. His last interlocutor, Callicles, not only is not persuaded by him, but at one point even refuses to talk to Socrates and leaves him with the choice between abandoning the discussion altogether and performing a monologue.
Strepsiades says, “It is said that they have two speeches, the stronger, whatever it may be, and the weaker. One of these speeches, the weaker, wins, they say, although it speaks the more unjust things” (Aristophanes, 111-115). This is very similar to the first charge brought against him in The Apology, for challenging the orthodox beliefs and being “a thinker on things aloft, who has investigated all things under earth, and who makes the weaker speech the stronger” (Plato, 18b). All of Athens held the belief that Socrates questioned things that should not be questioned. But both Socrates and Aristophanes know that a philosopher questions everything, from the mundane to the
Socrates starts by speaking of his first accusers. He speaks of the men that they talked to about his impiety and says that those that they persuaded in that Socrates is impious, that they themselves do not believe in gods (18c2). He tells the court of how long they have been accusing him of impiety. He states that they spoke to others when they were at an impressionable age (18c5). These two reasons alone should have been good enough to refute the first accusers of how they were wrong about him but Socrates went on. He leaves the first accusers alone because since they accused him a long time ago it was not relevant in the current case and began to refute the second accusers. Socrates vindicates his innocence by stating that the many have heard what he has taught in public and that many of those that he taught were present in the court that day.
The following essay aims to discuss the opinion that Socrates should not be considered a Sophist, with one’s chosen focal point to be how although he may have shared many qualities, it is his differences from this group which set him apart in a group of his own. The ideas one shall go on to discuss include how Socrates can be equated with the Sophists, as he too saw the importance of this discussion and education of the moral society, the pursuit of such education lead to hostility towards both the Sophists and Socrates, both of whom were accused of impiety and corruption of the youth.One shall go on to argue against this interpretation however, presenting ideas around Socrates methods and
And as Gorgias was being interrogated, his focus was shifted toward answering Socrates closed ended questions by a short Yes or No instead of placing emphasis on other answers that could have helped him win the debate. However, his short answers were used against him, by Socrates: “I`m really Impressed with your answers, Gorgias. I can`t imagine how they could be shorter” (Plato 5). At that moment Socrates was saying something that he didn`t mean. He wasn`t really impressed by Gorgias short answers or couldn`t imagine how they could be shorter. He was using a verbal irony with the intention of mocking Gorgias. Not only he wanted to get Gorgias emotionally confused and ashamed but he wanted to get the crowd to laugh at him. He had a sarcastic attitude to appeal to the audience by entertaining it, and eventually get an emotional reaction from it to gain an advantage in the debate. He made the crowd feel amused and relieved by laughing and releasing the tension of the argument. The rhetorical strategy used here by Socrates is Pathos, a method called Pathetic appeal which is the attempt of persuasion, by making an audience feeling certain
For example, whenever he exchanged answers with The Laws it was an “you’re wrong,” where as it when it came to Critos it was an, “I can’t.” Socrates demonstrates that the conversation that each situation differed was that one was with an audience he could trust and one that he could not. Socrates had demonstrated The Laws that were unjust and had to come up with some “smart” way to get him behind bars because he recognized that both sides knew nothing, including him. He explains to them that their wisdom should be classified more as ignorance because all that Socrates has ever tried to do was to help the citizens of Athens. His goal was to influence the community on how one can live a more valuable life by listening to the truth rather than falsely accusations stated by the
Here, Socrates asks question after question, asking Thrasymachus to define what it is exactly that one word means in reference to another word, and enforcing those definitions throughout the dialogue. Socrates is able to pick out the flaw he detects within the claim and use then use the words of his opponents against them. He over analyzes word choice and nitpicks the structure of other people’s statements in order to reveal to them that what they thought was the truth is
The use of dialect in Plato’s Gorgias raises question about whether it actually changes the beliefs a person holds. The reading opens up with Socrates and his friend Polus having a conversation about orators and tyrants while questioning the power they hold in there cities. Throughout the whole reading they engage in topics of power, Happiness, and suffering while each disagree with each other. Socrates uses the art of dialect and shows Polus that his opinions are flawed and eventually Polus concedes and sides with Socrates, contradicting his first statement. Although Polus now takes the views Socrates has, does that really mean his mind is truly changed? I would make that claim that though Socrates has successfully made Polus contradict his first statements, his use of dialect did not
Socrates challenges Protagoras if virtue is really something that can be taught and he continues to argue with Protagoras because he simply wants to understand the truth about virtue. He knows that Protagoras has the reputation as being the best and he wants to know the answer. Socrates wants to know if all parts of virtue are separate and distinct or all one and the same. As the argument progresses Protagoras does not give Socrates clear answers to his questions, and the conversation is not going where Socrates wished it would. Socrates continued to ask Protagoras questions, that was until Protagoras could no longer answer the questions, he gave up and realized that in the argument he turned into the answerer. This is probably due to the fact that Socrates wanted the answers, and who else go to for those answers than
Socrates starts his defense by addressing the jury and telling them that his accusers had a prepared speech, while Socrates' speech will be completely improvised. Socrates continued to further disassociate himself from the opponents by telling the jury to forgive him for his conversational tone in his speech, for that's how he best speaks. He also asks the jury to keep an open mind and not concentrate on how his defense is delivered, but the substance of his defense. Socrates tells the jury that he is not a sophist. Sophists were known for charging fees for their work, and Socrates does not charge a fee for his words. His next decides to cross-examine Meletus. Basically Socrates turns the tables on his accuser and accuses Meletus of "dealing frivolously with serious matters." Socrates says that the youth he supposedly corrupts follows him around on their own free will, because the young men enjoy hearing people and things being questioned. In this line of questioning of Meletus, Socrates makes him look very contradictory to his statements in his affidavit. Socrates then moves on to the second part of his defense. Moving on to the second charge that he does not believe in the Gods accepted ...
Socrates have been using rhetorical devices throughout his discussion with Gorgias, and started out by using ethos appeal to draw Gorgias into his questioning, in which Polus gave an indefinite answers to Chaerephon. Ethos appeal can be described as an appeal by character of authority; it is when we tend to believe those who we respect. After Polus failed to answer the question, Socrates responded, “It certainly looks as though Polus is well qualified to speak, Gorgias, but he’s not doing what he promised Chaerephon he’d do.” (Plato 3). Socrates, who was not satisfied with the answer given by Polus, provoked Gorgias into answering for his disciple as Socrates brought Gorgias’ name into the conversation.
Plato defines rhetoric as “the art of ruling the minds of men” (Bloom). The sophists were instructors in the disciplines of rhetoric and overall excellence. Their teachings thrived in the fifth century B.C. Through the work of Protagoras, Gorgias, Antiophon, and other sophists, the people of Athens gained higher education and stopped accepting everything they were taught as absolute fact. This questioning of traditional philosophical schools eventually led to the emergence of other ways of thought such as skepticism.
Philosophy can be defined as the pursuit of wisdom or the love of knowledge. Socrates, as one of the most well-known of the early philosophers, epitomizes the idea of a pursuer of wisdom as he travels about Athens searching for the true meaning of the word. Throughout Plato’s early writings, he and Socrates search for meanings of previously undefined concepts, such as truth, wisdom, and beauty. As Socrates is often used as a mouthpiece for Plato’s ideas about the world, one cannot be sure that they had the same agenda, but it seems as though they would both agree that dialogue was the best way to go about obtaining the definitions they sought. If two people begin on common ground in a conversation, as Socrates often tries to do, they are far more likely to be able to civilly come to a conclusion about a particular topic, or at least further their original concept.