Deck 3: Plato Vs the Sophists: Rhetoric on Trial

Question 1

What were Plato's strongest objections in Gorgias to rhetoric as practiced by the Sophists?

Answer 1

Plato's first concern with rhetoric is that it does not embody an adequate conception of justice and is therefore dangerous. Secondly, he says that many people are attracted to rhetoric for its power to manipulate and coerce. He believes that these two points will mislead people and result to the corruption of the polis.

Question 2

Why is Plato concerned about the difference between mere belief and true knowledge, particularly concerning the issues of justice?

Answer 2

Plato says that the Sophists deal in mere belief (pistis) about justice and not in true knowledge(episteme). A true understanding of justice takes a long time to achieve; Sophists in courtrooms are only able to create beliefs about justice. Plato sees this as dangerous, as people operating only on beliefs about justice instead of true knowledge will commit injustices.

Question 3

What criteria must a pursuit satisfy in order to be considered a techne by Plato?

Answer 3

A techne is an art, discipline, or skill that takes a long time to understand and that produces a socially useful outcome. Types of techne include medicine, navigation, governing, and military leadership. A techne must also provide a logos, or a reasoned explanation of how the art achieves its goals. Practitioners of simple knacks cannot provide such explanations.

Question 4

Plato argues in Gorgias that rhetoric is a sham art. He also discusses a number of true arts. What is the true art to which rhetoric corresponds? What does Plato apparently mean by the comparison?

Question 5

Identified by their characteristic loves, what are the various types of souls Plato discusses in Phaedrus?

Question 6

What is the specific role assigned to a true art of rhetoric by Plato in Phaedrus?

Question 7

Do you agree with Socrates that rhetoric works best "among the ignorant"? Does the quality of an audience govern the quality of the rhetoric it is likely to hear?

Question 8

Based on your reading of this chapter and Chapter 2, has Plato been fair to the Sophists? Does he have a good argument against them?

Question 9

Does Plato make a convincing case in Phaedrus that there may be a true and just art of rhetoric?

Question 10

Plato suggests in Gorgias that certain arts such as justice and medicine are essential to society. Others, such as the Sophist's brand of rhetoric, are imitations of these essential arts. If you had the opportunity to set up a society's system of government, what role, if any, would the study of rhetoric play in it? Would you place any restrictions on the practice of this art?

Question 11

Respond to Plato's suggestion in Gorgias that the absence of a transforming logos for rhetoric renders the practice a mere knack, not a virtuous techne. Does a systematic explanation of a practice render it morally improved?

Question 12

Do you think that Plato has a point when he suggests in Phaedrus that there are different types of human souls dominated by the different things they love? Is his psychology too simple, or does he perhaps have an insight?

Question 13

In Gorgias, Plato did not believe that rhetoric was a true _______________, the Greek term meaning an art, discipline, or skill that produced a socially useful outcome.

Question 14

One of Plato's concern's with rhetoric as an art was that it operated using "mere beliefs" or "mere opinions" on justice rather than _______________, the Greek term for "true knowledge."

Question 15

_______________ is the text by Plato in which Socrates discusses a form of rhetoric that may achieve the status of a true art, and in which he discusses how souls are divided into three parts.

Question 16

Plato believed that a useful art of rhetoric would convince the lower parts of the soul to voluntarily submit to the _______________ loving part of the soul in order to produce harmony and justice.

Question 17

In Gorgias, _______________ is the "sham art" that Socrates identifies as appearing to maintain one's health rather than actually maintaining physical health.

Question 18

A great concern of Plato's was that because rhetoric was not founded in true justice it would corrupt young people as well as the ________________, the Greek term for the city-state.

Question 19

Which of the following was the Sophist whose name meant "colt" and in Plato's Gorgias represented the generation of young men that were infatuated with the Sophists, seeing rhetoric as a path to fame and wealth?

A) Gorgias
B) Socrates
C) Polus
D) Callicles

Question 20

Which of the following was the Sophist who believed in natural justice and said that "he who is better and more intelligent should rule and have the advantage over baser men"? To Plato, this Sophist represents the danger rhetoric poses to society by allowing people to think they are just while living unjustly.

A) Gorgias
B) Socrates
C) Polus
D) Callicles

Question 21

Which of the following metaphors did Plato use to communicate his idea that one part of the soul should control the other two in order for the soul to enjoy peace and happiness?

A) A father and his sons
B) A general and his soldiers
C) A charioteer and his horses
D) A king and his subjects

Question 22

Which of the following terms was used by both Gorgias and Plato to describe a view of rhetoric as an art of "influencing the soul"?

A) Kolakeia
B) Psychagogia
C) Parasemos
D) Sonorus

Question 23

Which of the following is the art that Socrates identifies as restoring health to a soul?

A) Legislation
B) Justice
C) Sophistic
D) Rhetoric

Question 24

Which of the following in ancient Greece would be categorized as a poieses or one of the productive arts?

A) Rhetoric
B) Medicine
C) Pottery
D) Navigation

Question 25

As an Athenian, Plato was a strong advocate for democracy, and believed that rhetoric took power away from the demos or people.

Question 26

The earliest use of the Greek term rhetorike, from which we get the word rhetoric, is found in Gorgias, leading some to believe that Plato coined the term.

Question 27

In Gorgias, Socrates convinces Gorgias and Callicles, but not Polus to give up practicing rhetoric and to seek true justice through philosophy.

Question 28

In Gorgias, some scholars have seen Plato's writing as using rhetorical arguments to point out the dangers of practicing rhetoric.

Question 29

Plato believed that for the soul to achieve harmony, the part that loves nobility must rule over the other two parts of the soul.

Question 30

Plato's art of rhetoric requires an orator to be like a psychologist, adapting speeches with different logoi to appeal to different types of souls.

Question 31

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-Greek term for a belief or opinion. Public opinion.

Question 32

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-Greek term for a true art, which Plato contrasts to a sham art or "knack."

Question 33

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-Greek term employed by Plato to mean a mere belief, as contrasted to true knowledge.

Question 34

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-Greek term for true knowledge, which Plato felt the Sophists lacked on crucial questions such as justice.

Question 35

Provide the term for the following definitions:
-Greek term for the mind or soul.

Question 36

Plato's dialogues Gorgias and Phaedrus are discussed in Chapter Three. Briefly describe the view of rhetoric advanced by the character Socrates in each dialogue.

Question 37

Briefly overview the positions regarding rhetoric advanced by Socrates, Gorgias, Polus, and Callicles in Plato's dialogue Gorgias. How does each speaker characterize rhetoric and its goals?

Question 38

In Gorgias, what sort of rhetoric is under attack by Plato? What, apparently, is Plato's main concern about the personal and social consequences of this kind of rhetoric?

Question 39

Briefly explain Plato's distinction between a true art (techne) and a sham art in Gorgias. Provide an example of a true art and its sham or counterfeit from the dialogue to illustrate your answer.

Question 40

Briefly explain what Plato means by equating rhetoric with "cookery" in Gorgias?

Question 41

What does it mean to say that Plato believed in the complexity of the soul? Briefly, how does this belief influence the view of rhetoric and its goal as advanced in his dialogue, Phaedrus?

Question 42

What is Plato's general argument against the Sophists in his dialogue Gorgias? About which aspect of sophistic rhetoric is he apparently most concerned? What, specifically, does Plato mean by his peculiar comparison of rhetoric to cooking? Would Plato's argument against sophistic rhetoric work equally well against all forms of rhetoric? Explain your answer.

Question 43

In Phaedrus Plato suggests there might be a true art of rhetoric. If so, what goal would that art seek, and how would it pursue that goal? What sorts of knowledge would the practitioner of the true art of rhetoric have to master? Finally, in what way could Plato's myth of the charioteer be understood as a metaphor for his theory of a true art of rhetoric?

Question 44

Plato defined rhetoric as "the art of influencing the soul through words," but condemned rhetoric as a "knack" in Gorgias. Is it possible to resolve the tension between Plato's suggestions about a true art of rhetoric in Phaedrus, and his condemnation of it in Gorgias. Can the philosopher hold both views without contradicting himself?