Abstract

Some recent studies have shown that the critique of rhetoric in the Gorgias itself has a rhetorical dimension. The following analysis deals only with the first part of the dialogue, in which Socrates questions Gorgias, from two complementary perspec­tives. First, since it is ad hominem in character, Socrates’ argumentation mimics and transforms the techniques of contemporary rhetoric, but its goals are protreptic and ethical rather than eristic. Secondly, insofar as he is the controlling author of the dialogue,, Plato displays strategies that of course are to be distinguished from Socrates’ argumentative strategies - just as the historical Gorgias is to be distinguished from the figure represented by Plato. The distinction here focusses on the problem of interpreting the different ways in which both the character Socrates and the author Plato employ irony and indirect communication.