Sofística e Retórica no Górgias de Platão

This essay aims at elucidating the distinction between sophistry and rhetoric in Plato’s Gorgias starting from Socrates’ enigmatic contention that “sophists and rhetors are mixed up in the same area and about the same thing, since they are so close to each other” (465c4-5; Irwin’s translation). To...

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Main Author: Daniel R. N. Lopes
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad de Sevilla 2020-01-01
Series:Araucaria
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=28268069014
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author Daniel R. N. Lopes
author_facet Daniel R. N. Lopes
author_sort Daniel R. N. Lopes
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description This essay aims at elucidating the distinction between sophistry and rhetoric in Plato’s Gorgias starting from Socrates’ enigmatic contention that “sophists and rhetors are mixed up in the same area and about the same thing, since they are so close to each other” (465c4-5; Irwin’s translation). To this end I will discuss, firstly, the genealogy of the Greek words sophistikē and rhētorikē in the remaining Greek literature, attempting to show that the modern notions of “sophistry” and “rhetoric” in a broad sense derive from a Platonic-Aristotelian operation of delimitating a special kind of thought and pedagogical activity in opposition to “philosophy”. Secondly, I will analyze some passages of Plato’s Gorgias and Protagoras in which these two notions are being theoretically defined. The general idea pursued in this essay is that rhetoric integrates the sophistic education represented paradigmatically by Protagoras as a necessary means for the citizen to take part in the deliberative institutions of a democratic city (Counsel and Assembly), whereas in the case of Gorgias rhetoric – and more specifically, the judiciary species – consists in the end itself of his pedagogical activity, and not as a means to a wider moral and intellectual education – that is to say, the teaching of political art, identified with moral virtue in Plato’s Protagoras.
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spelling doaj-art-48e0739335224ad6992da56f6e57eb242025-02-06T16:09:08ZengUniversidad de SevillaAraucaria1575-68232340-21992020-01-012244303324Sofística e Retórica no Górgias de PlatãoDaniel R. N. LopesThis essay aims at elucidating the distinction between sophistry and rhetoric in Plato’s Gorgias starting from Socrates’ enigmatic contention that “sophists and rhetors are mixed up in the same area and about the same thing, since they are so close to each other” (465c4-5; Irwin’s translation). To this end I will discuss, firstly, the genealogy of the Greek words sophistikē and rhētorikē in the remaining Greek literature, attempting to show that the modern notions of “sophistry” and “rhetoric” in a broad sense derive from a Platonic-Aristotelian operation of delimitating a special kind of thought and pedagogical activity in opposition to “philosophy”. Secondly, I will analyze some passages of Plato’s Gorgias and Protagoras in which these two notions are being theoretically defined. The general idea pursued in this essay is that rhetoric integrates the sophistic education represented paradigmatically by Protagoras as a necessary means for the citizen to take part in the deliberative institutions of a democratic city (Counsel and Assembly), whereas in the case of Gorgias rhetoric – and more specifically, the judiciary species – consists in the end itself of his pedagogical activity, and not as a means to a wider moral and intellectual education – that is to say, the teaching of political art, identified with moral virtue in Plato’s Protagoras.http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=28268069014philosophyrhetoricsophistrydemocracy
spellingShingle Daniel R. N. Lopes
Sofística e Retórica no Górgias de Platão
Araucaria
philosophy
rhetoric
sophistry
democracy
title Sofística e Retórica no Górgias de Platão
title_full Sofística e Retórica no Górgias de Platão
title_fullStr Sofística e Retórica no Górgias de Platão
title_full_unstemmed Sofística e Retórica no Górgias de Platão
title_short Sofística e Retórica no Górgias de Platão
title_sort sofistica e retorica no gorgias de platao
topic philosophy
rhetoric
sophistry
democracy
url http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=28268069014
work_keys_str_mv AT danielrnlopes sofisticaeretoricanogorgiasdeplatao