The Gorgias: Terminology & Themes

Terminology

• Argument/Account/Speech/Word/Explanation: (logos λόγος): Logos may refer to a speech or argument. It can also express the reason for doing something. It may express the nature of something if it is a true logos. Remarkably Socrates calls the story he tells at the end a “true logos”
• Common/Shared: (koinos κοινός) Socrates seems to believe that the good which a dialogue aims at is shared, is common with friends. While we can share somethings like food, there are somethings which only increase and never decrease when we share them. There is both humility and truth in that which is common or made common. The logos is something common or present to all, though all may not hear it.
• Dialogue: (dialegomenon διαλεγόμενον ) a speech among peers seeking truth. A dialogue is said to be different than rhetoric.
• fine/beautiful: (kalos καλός) Gorgias and Polus describe their art (rhetoric) as about the most beautiful things. Does this prove to be the case?
• Justice: (dikay δίκη) This word is the root of the following words: justice, righteousness, judge, right, unrighteous, justified, etc.
• Logos, Ethos, Pathos: These are the three proofs offered in a speech, as listed by Aristotle.
  • logos: The argument or speaking to the issue
  • Ethos: the trustworthiness of the speaker displayed by how he speaks or acts
  • Pathos: the experience of persuasion (emotional or spiritual) which the listener is moved to undergo by the speech/speaker
• Persuasion & Faith: (peitho πείθω & pistis πίστις) These interelated phenomena refer to the experience of being moved by (persuasion) and coming to believe (faith) something. We need to be persuaded about things which we do not or cannot fully know, or about things which we should do, but may not want to.
• Purpose/End/Aim/Goal/Fulfilment/Perfection: (telos τέλος) A telos is that end or purpose for which a thing is done. The telos of exercise is fitness and beauty. The telos of a phone is communication. The telos of an acorn is an oak. What is the telos of speech? What is the telos of human life?

Themes

• The Good vs. pleasure
• power vs. vulnerability
• Shame vs. shamelessness
• Being a master of logos vs. a lover of logos
• Knowledge vs. power
• Happiness
• Telos
• Nature vs Convention
• appearance (display) vs. reality
•  Logos
• want vs. need
• Persuasion, Faith, and Belief
• Dialogue vs. Rhetoric
• Worldly sophistication vs. simple truths
• common vs. private
  • wisdom
  • food
  • power
  • knowledge
  • justice
  • wealth
  • judgment
  • words
  • the good