
HoP 020 - Virtue Meets Its Match - Plato's Gorgias
History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps
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Introduction
Ancient philosophers spent a lot of time arguing about the nature of the good life. In plato's gorgias, virtue meets its match against rhetoric. Socrates says he wants to discover what rhetoric is, but winds up mounting a defence of the virtuous life. What do rhetoricians do? The man who has mastered rhetoric can go into public court and get his audience to believe whatever he likes.
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