Abstract

“For us moderns, rhetoric means artificiality, insincerity, decadence”. Henri-Irénée Marrou’s opinion resonates with the Platonic claim that rhetoric is cookery in Gorgias. However, in Phaedrus, Plato states that rhetoric is medicine. So, is rhetoric cookery or medicine? This paper asserts that the determinants of rhetoric to be cookery or medicine are its methods and purposes – rhetoric is cookery when used as a trick and rhetoric is medicine when used as an art. First, the definitions of art and trick in Gorgias and Phaedrus are cross-examined. Second, the purposes of art and trick in both Platonic texts are comparatively studied. Third, the different natures of rhetoric dominated in each dialogue are analyzed. For rhetoric, based on false knowledge, is aimed at pleasure, it is a trick, rhetoric is cookery. While for rhetoric based on the true knowledge and kairos is used for persuasion, it is an art, and rhetoric is a medicine.