Amylyn Ja. De Paz Introduction to Ethics (PHI-240-830CH) Homework for Monday, January 30, 2023 Why does Polus jump into the discussion at this point? (461bc) Polus jumps into the discussion after Socrates has managed to get Gorgias to contradict himself. He does this since he believes that Socrates was unjust towards Gorgias and as a way to express his opinion after listening to Gorgias and Socrates discuss. What attitude does Polus have towards Socrates and the discussion itself? Polus has a defensive, stubborn, unrestrained, wrathful attitude towards Socrates and the discussion itself. This can be portrayed when Polus states ”This man!” (467B). This exclamation was said after Socrates had bested him in the discussion and the tone Polus used can be inferred to be fueled by …show more content…
He then states that politics are for the soul and consist of legislation and justice. For the body, there are gymnastics and medicine. These four values are what flattery tries to adopt and disguise itself as: tries to seem as beneficial and as important as these values. Cookery does the same by trying to present itself as medicine. Food can taste better than medicine but it is not of the best interest of the body. Food seeks to pleasure over best needs, and Socrates states that rhetoric does the same; there is no rationality to rhetoric. Socrates thinks that rhetoric is an imposter that presents itself as the hero of the story only to show its true colors at the end of the story (my analogy). Socrates dives further into this by stating that “beautification is to gymnastics,'' “sophistry to law-making” and “rhetoric is to justice.” All of these values—beautification, sophistry, and rhetoric—are embellishments and frauds of the beneficial ideals. Socrates believes that rhetoricians and sophists are the same. Socrates attests that rhetoric does the same to the soul as cookery does to the
Grant Pendergraft Mrs. Erwin English II 20 January 2023 Jay Heinrichs is Very Good at Arguing Thank You for Arguing, by Jay Heinrichs, but more specifically, his section Remember Aristotle’s definition of virtue: A matter of character, concerned with choice, lying in a mean, is a persuasive essay on implementing rhetoric back into the curriculums of schools. He believes that if the population was taught rhetoric, the community would change for the better. He believes that when rhetoric is introduced into society, we will be less susceptible to tricks that currently fool us. This includes everything from candy bar ads, to American politics.
Luis Arredondo Professor Kinkead Composition I 11 September 2016 Aristotle Summary Aristotle Rhetoric Book I takes a look into the social implications of rhetoric, while describing attributes of rhetoric. Aristotle clarifies the difference between dialectic and rhetoric, dialect having overall implications of the message and rhetoric having particular set of goals. The main goal of Rhetoric is to persuade the audience on a large scale. Ethos, logos, and pathos are necessary for persuading the audience due to ethos establishing credibility for the speaker, logos giving the speech a logical approach, pathos giving the audience an emotional perspective.
Throughout the debate, Socrates seizes his knowledge of rhetoric and uses it against Gorgias. His understanding of rhetorical appeals and devices allows him to conspire a plan to trap Gorgias in his own contradictions. Through the use of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos, Socrates adequately
I do agree with Socrates that rhetoric is mostly misused and dangerous for both the speaker and the listener. I believe rhetoric is dangerous for the speaker because that person maybe don’t understand how much power they hold over someone. It can be dangerous for the listener for the simply fact is the information they’ve been give may or may not be correct. I think past experience motivated Socrates feel this way about the usage of rhetoric. One example that Socrates proves that rhetoric is being misused is his example of the physician and I agree because this happens now in the world.
(460 b). In which, Gorgias agrees. And Socrates asks Gorgias again, “now isn’t an orator necessary just, and doesn’t a just man necessarily
In the tale Gorgias by Plato, Socrates debates with four colleagues on what is rhetoric. To be able to answer if rhetoric is based on nature or convention you must first ask the question, what is rhetoric? Rhetoric stated by Socrates is the skill of making speeches (448d). Gorgias states that rhetoricians have the power of persuasions (452e). Rhetoric is having the power to persuade people in changing their opinion threw the power of speeches.
Socrates asserts the effectiveness of the dialectic relationship and his “method is to call in support of [his] statements the evidence of a single witness, and to take his vote alone” (474a). Throughout the dialogue Socrates attempts to persuade three rhetoricians into a dialogue, with the intention of unearthing the truth, with each conceding to Socrates’ appeal to reason until Socrates’ dialogue with Callicles. This is where the weakness in Socrates’ position is revealed because had Socrates been able to persuade or engage Callicles this would have been a victory for the dialectical relationship, which Socrates’ argues is the only method of exposing the truth. Regardless of how consistent and logical Socrates’ method is Callicles refuses to participate, through the art of not listening, revealing the limitations in Socrates’ method at arriving to the truth and in essence the best way to
Examining the Relevance of Plato's Insights on Rhetoric and Politics Today Throughout history, political power has been sought not just through strength and authority, but also through the strategic use of language in rhetoric. Plato's Gorgias examines this phenomenon, emphasizing the damaging effects of such rhetoric in politics and advocating for a shift in the way we engage in politics today. Through his dialogue between Socrates and various characters, Plato portrays a society in which rhetoric, rather than morality, is used as a way to pursue power. By exposing the parallel between the soul and the city, he explains the corruption of employing rhetoric for political gain and calls for a renewed emphasis on moral leadership. Through Plato's Gorgias, it is evident that rhetoric is used to achieve short-term success in
That is why Socrates believes that doing injustice is much worse than suffering it for it is more shameful and that person will be unhappy because of that shame. I think that anyone who is put in the place of Polus will reply the same, since nobody would want to feel the guilt and the shame of doing injustice. The act of committing injustice actions goes back to the root of
They must understand how people process information, how they make decisions, and how they are influenced by emotion. Gorgias and Socrates were two of the most influential philosophers of rhetoric in ancient Greece. Gorgias believed that rhetoric was the art of making the weaker argument appear stronger. He argued that rhetoric could be used to
When Socrates calls on to Meletus in order for him to make his claims and explain them to the assembly and the jury, Socrates makes different arguments
In the Apology Socrates defends himself against the charges brought against him by his prosecutor Meletus in two ways. In the first way Socrates describes his method and
The Gorgias dialogue begins with Socrates asking if a discussion with Gorgias would be possible. Socrates makes it clear from the beginning of the dialogue that he would prefer no long display speeches to be made if Gorgias is going to participate in discussion, but asks specifically for only short answers to be given to the questions he asks. James Nichols, translator of the two dialogues argues in his Gorgias essay that “the brevity of the answers about what rhetoric is causes the first definitions to be too broad or universal or inclusive; the definition is narrowed down through Socrates' questioning and, in that sense, under his guidance.” Using this method allows Socrates to arrive at the conclusions necessary to convince Gorgias of what rhetoric is and to understand what he is
He told Socrates to answer this own question. This again shows that Polus has no confidence in his position of only doing what is good for oneself and does not want to be wrong even more,
Making enemies and becoming the topic of conversation, the Athenians began to view Socrates as a threat to their beliefs and way of life and sought to end it. In order to end this, Socrates was accused of blasphemy (Mod1SlideC7). Socrates’s accusers took him to court and after Socrates did not play their game by asking to be sent into exile, and in the end, he was sentenced to death. After reading the textbook and Plato’s writing influenced by Socrates, I realized that in the period of his life Socrates was indeed truly a threat to the Athens society, because he looked for answers that no one else bothered to find which challenged their culture.