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Full-Text Articles in Ancient Philosophy
Plato’S Gorgias: Rhetoric, The Greatest Evil, And The True Art Of Politics, Paul A. George
Plato’S Gorgias: Rhetoric, The Greatest Evil, And The True Art Of Politics, Paul A. George
UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
The interweaving of rhetoric, the greatest evil, and the true art of politics create the unity of the dialogue. Whereas Gorgianic rhetoric is pleasure seeking flattery which inspires belief without knowledge, noble rhetoric is refutative, inspiring the acknowledgment of falsity or ignorance. Moreover, it is self-refutation, meaning that the person being persuaded arrives at the conclusion of his ignorance by his own realization; the noble rhetor does not connect all the dots for them. The greatest evil is to have a false opinion about justice. A just penalty for suffering from the greatest evil is to face selfrefutation in hopes …