Plato's Gorgias
...ic is not to be blamed. He says: “So it is not the teachers who are wicked, nor is the art either guilty or wicked on this account, but rather, to my thinking, those who do no use it properly” (Plato, in Bizzell 93). He claims that rhetoric is morally neutral. Socrates finds much contradiction within Gorgias’ philosophy. Naturally so, as we cannot live in a blameless society where evils can be practiced and the procurers of that evil cannot be to blame. Gorgias does not believe rhetoric can be right or wrong. Socrates then begins to break the different types of rhetoric up for us. Socrates explains that the rhetorician may be more persuasive than one who knows, but he does not possess true knowledge about that which he is speaking: “Thus cookery assumes the form of medicine, and pretends to know what foods are best to the body; so that if a cook and a doctor had to contend before boys, as to which of the two, the doctor or the cook, understands the question of sound and noxious foods, the doctor would starve to death.” Socrates says the sham arts are cookery and rhetoric. At first, one would question Socrates on his deduction of rhetoric as a sham. It may not always be a complete sham, but upon examination, it is obvious that a rhetorician will sway facts and put forth evidence solely to persuade someone in a certain direction. A rhetorician can withhold information and deceive the audience intentionally, without even meaning to, putting rhetoric into the “sham” art category. It is important to be a good person and have morals, but many good people will lie to get what they want. A lawyer in the courtroom will think of a myriad of things to say to prove that his/her client is innocent, even if he/she knows that the client is guilty. At the same time, this lawyer can be a good person and have morals. Unfortunately, we are living in a society that values power and wealth over justice and injustice. This could have also been the case in ancient Greece. Socrates tells us that legislation and justice are the true arts that will mend our soul. If the truth is given, then justice is delivered. We always want the truth, the truth is discovered through legislation and justice, and truth is found in knowledge. We can attempt to achieve knowledge and mend our souls with justice and legislation. In addition, Plato feels that if people had morals and valued goodness, then the truth would be given and this would help people govern their lives. Socrates thinks the Sophists lack morals and a concern for the well being of society. In the Phaedrus, Plato uses a discussion between Socrates and his student Phaedrus to uncover the meaning of truth through love. Socrates focuses in his last speech on the importance of truth in speaking and writing. Socrates expands on his ideals of rhetoric from the Gorgias by arguing that rhetoric is not isolated to courts of law, but is practiced everywhere. He says it is “an art which leads the soul by means of word”(Plato in Bizzell 166). In order to attain this, a rhetorician must possess knowledge of “the real nature of things” and “must . . . make a ...