Gorgias of Leontini
His Life
Gorgias of Leontini was a teacher of rhetoric, and a paid public speaker. His persona was immortalized by the great Athenian philosopher Plato in his dialogue of Gorgias. He would travel around teaching and giving entertaining lectures. He was an aristocrat, an extreme Aristotelian who predates Aristotle. He arrived in Athens as ambassador of Leontini in 427 BCE.
His Works
His known surviving works consist of a collection of epideictic speeches such as Encomium or Defense of Helen and a second work "On Non-Being." Number among his numerous achievements and innovations was his being the first to initiate a question and answer period following his lectures. Gorgias also pioneered the idea of adjusting your speaking to suit your audience.
His influence
With respect to his philosophy, as demonstrated in his Encomium of Helen, Gorgias emphasized and exalted the domain of oratory. He emphasized pleasure and pain, opinion, and most importantly persuasion over truth.
For example, his book, "On Non-Being" is a book that seeks to argue that nothing exists by stating that, anything you might mention is nothing, if it were something it would be unknowable, and that even if it were knowable it could not be made evident to others. Gorgias laid the foundation for every would be persuader as to where the real power of the persuader lies.
On Non-Being
central ideas
Anything you might mention is nothing.
If it were something it would be unknowable.
If it were knowable it could not be made evident to others.
Encomium of Helen
influential quotes
This quote, like many other quotes in the Encomium of Helen, lays out the power of persuasion and orator. And although it is clear that Gorgias himself never thought that orators could teach virtue, the orators and flatterers that would follow him such as Aristotle, would use the power he discovered to do exactly that.
Although it is worth noting that Aristotle did criticize Gorgias’ presentation style, offer his own version in the Nichamachean Ethics in a section called The Proud Man, his view of humanity, especially as it relates to our mental powers, efficiently represented views of his predecessor.
The idea of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain as a standard of virtue is a common theme among the followers of Gorgias. Every flatterer since his death has held a position counter to the Socratic position which holds that make judgments based on pleasure and pain are flattery.
The orators that followed Gorgias have successfully seized on the opportunity to overthrow the Socratic method of seeking truth with persuasive speech.
Fictional gorgias
Plato’s Dialogue of Gorgias
The fictional depiction of Gorgias of Leontini in Plato’s dialogue of Gorgias is very similar to the historical Gorgias. He along with two fictional characters, his apprentice Polus, and the noblemen Callicles debate Socrates on concept of power. Who holds it, how is it wielded and to what end?
The three flatterers challenge Socrates one by one, each attempting to amend and augment each others arguments in the pursuit of victory to no avail. The three flatterers can be seen as one individual because the full picture of what the followers of Gorgias, the so called flatterers, persuaders or orators, believe and why they believe it is clarified by the sum of their combined speeches.
Taking the sum of their speeches into account, you discover the inspiration and the foundation of Aristotle’s philosophy. Like real life Gorgias of Leontini, the fictional trio exalted the idea of seeking pleasure and rejecting pain or the idea so seeking the good.
The following are a few significant quotes from the aforementioned trio that is indicative of what would be become the enlightenment doctrine centuries later.