Rhetoric and Power

Gwen Gettle

GSI Jerilyn Sambrooke

Rhetoric 103A
8 October 2016

Rhetoric and Power in Plato’s Gorgias

            In Plato’s dialogue ​Gorgias, the characters Socrates and Chaerephon visit the famous rhetorician Gorgias to hear him speak at his exhibition. However, arriving late, Gorgias had already finished his performance, but they were able to meet him at their mutual friend Callicles' house to question him on their own time. Socrates specifically desired to ask Gorgias about his profession and asked Gorgias to explain to him what exactly rhetoric is and why it should be valued. In the first of the three sections of the dialogue, Gorgias attempts to answer Socrates' primary question, which thus sets the course of the lengthy discussion that ensues. He replies that rhetoric is the art of persuasion through discourse and that it grants man the greatest "good,” which he defines as “being that which gives to men freedom in their own persons, and to individuals the power of ruling over others in their several states.”

            Gorgias reasons that rhetoric presides over all other arts and thus is the only skill a man needs to be successful. He argues that a man does not even require actual knowledge about whatever subject he is speaking in order to convince the listener that what he is saying is correct. Further, he claims, rhetoricians are actually more likely to sway their listeners in the desired direction rather than experts in their respective subjects. In order to illustrate his point, he provides a personal example, recalling "on several occasions I have been with my brother Herodicus or some other physician to see one of his patients, who would not allow the physician to give him the medicine, or apply the knife or hot iron to him; and I have persuaded him to do for me what he would not to for the physician just by the use of rhetoric." Through their stronger command of speech, Gorgias suggests, rhetoricians find themselves bearing more influence over others than people trained in different areas of expertise.

            He continues by stating that by simply being trained in the art of persuasion, rhetoricians thus possess oratory techniques that other experts lack, which causes rhetoricians to be more likely to step into positions of power. In an earlier example in the dialogue, he reminds Socrates "you must have heard, I think, that the docks and the walls of the Athenians and the plan of the Barbour were devised in accordance with the counsels, partly of Themistocles, and partly of Pericles, and not at the suggestion of the builders," a statement with which he concludes by adding, "and you will observe, Socrates, that when a decision has to be given in such matters the rhetoricians are the advisors; they are the men who win their point." This implies that while the builders may be the experts in this situation, the men who know how to speak are the ones who are able to draw people to their side and are thus able to navigate the political circles; they are the leaders because they are the ones who can bring people to their sides.

            Gorgias’ response establishes that rhetoric is intertwined with the concept of power. Not only does rhetoric grant speakers the power to control others' thoughts and actions through speech alone, but their strong command of rhetoric allows them to be elected for literal positions of power. Then, instead of controlling others’ actions through convincing them what they should do, they can decree laws and issue orders for others to follow without objection: speakers who rise to power no longer have to persuade others how to act, but are free to demand them to act.