Title: Argumentativ überwunden, aber nicht überzeugt? : zur Wirksamkeit der sokratischen Elenktik in Platons Gorgias
Variant title:
- Overcome by arguments, but not convinced? : on the efficacy of the Socratic method in Plato's Gorgias
Source document: Graeco-Latina Brunensia. 2017, vol. 22, iss. 2, pp. 229-240
Extent
229-240
-
ISSN1803-7402 (print)2336-4424 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/GLB2017-2-13
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/137633
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
The Gorgias is frequently read as a dialogue in which Socrates fails to convince especially his last interlocutor Callicles to adopt a philosophical way of life. Instead, Callicles becomes increasingly indignant about the repeated refutation of his personal convictions and eventually refuses to participate in the conversation any longer. In general scholars explain this result by Callicles' recalcitrance. It is supposed that the dialogue illustrates the impossibility of persuasion if an interlocutor refuses to cooperate – which would imply certain limitations of the Socratic elenchus. In contrast, this paper demonstrates that Socrates indeed achieves his aim of shaking Callicles' faith. By decoding the medicine and court imagery, ubiquitous throughout the whole dialogue, it will be argued that, far from being an illustration of failure, the text instead indicates that Socrates' conversation with Callicles is successful – and thus proves the efficacy of the elenctic method even on reluctant opponents.
References
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[4] Black, E. (1958). Plato's View of Rhetoric. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 43, 361‒74. | DOI 10.1080/00335635809382317
[5] Blank, D. L. (1993). The Arousal of Emotion in Plato's Dialogues. Classical Quarterly, 43(2), 428‒439. | DOI 10.1017/S000983880003994X
[6] Collobert, C. (2013). La Rhétorique au Coeur de l'Examen Réfutatif Socratique. Le Jeu des Emotions dans le Gorgias. Phronesis, 58, 107–138. | DOI 10.1163/15685284-12341244
[7] Dalfen, J. (Transl.). (2004). Platon: Gorgias. In E. Heitsch, & C. W. Müller (Eds.), Platon: Werke (Bd. VI 3). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
[8] Dodds, E. (Ed.). (1959). Plato: Gorgias. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[9] Edmonds, R. (2012). Whip Scars on the Naked Soul. Myth and Elenchos in Plato's Gorgias. In C. Collobert, P. Destrée, & F. Gonzalez (Eds.), Plato and Myth (pp. 165‒185). Leiden ‒ Boston: Brill.
[10] Erler, M. (Transl.). (2011). Platon: Gorgias (Kommentiert und mit einem Nachwort versehen von T. Kobusch). Stuttgart: Reclam.
[11] Irwin, T. (Transl.). (1979). Plato: Gorgias. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[12] Kastely, J. (1991). In Defense of Plato's Gorgias. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 106, 96‒109. | DOI 10.2307/462826
[13] Kauffman, Ch. (1979). Enactment as Argument in the Gorgias. Philosophy and Rhetoric, 12(2), 114‒129.
[14] Klosko, G. (1984). The Refutation of Callicles in Plato's 'Gorgias'. Greece & Rome, Second Series, 31(2), 126‒139. | DOI 10.1017/S0017383500028503
[15] Kobusch, Th. (1978). Sprechen und Moral. Überlegungen zum platonischen "Gorgias". Philosophisches Jahrbuch, 85, 87‒108.
[16] Lewis, Th. (1986). Refutative Rhetoric as True Rhetoric in Plato's Gorgias. Interpretation, 14, 195‒210.
[17] McCoy, M. (2009). Plato on the Rhetoric of Philosophers and Sophists. Cambridge: University Press.
[18] McKim, R. (1988). Shame and Truth in Plato's Gorgias. In Ch. Griswold (Ed.), Platonic Writings, Platonic Readings (pp. 34‒48). New York ‒ London: Routledge.
[19] Moss, J. (2005). Shame, Pleasure, and the Divided Soul. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 29, 137‒170.
[20] Nichols, J. (1998). The Rhetoric of Justice in Plato's Gorgias. In Idem (Transl.), Plato: Gorgias (pp. 131‒149). Ithaca ‒ London: Cornell University Press.
[21] Ober, J. (1998). Political Dissent in Democratic Athens. Princeton: University Press.
[22] Pedrique, N. (2011). Logos dynastes. Dichtung und Rhetorik in Platons Gorgias. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
[23] Renaud, F. (2001). La rhétorique socratico-platonicienne dans le Gorgias (447a–461b). Philosophie antique, 1, 65–86.
[24] Rowe, Ch. (2007). Plato and the Art of Philosophical Writing. Cambridge: University Press.
[25] Scott, D. (1999). Platonic Pessimism and Moral Education. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 17, 15‒36.
[26] Sedley, D. (2009). Myth, Punishment and Politics in the Gorgias. In C. Partenie (Ed.), Plato's Myths (pp. 51–76). Cambridge: University Press.
[27] Stauffer, D. (2006). The Unity of Plato's Gorgias. Cambridge: University Press.
[28] Tarnopolsky, Ch. (2010). Prudes, Perverts, and Tyrants. Plato's Gorgias and the Politics of Shame. Princeton: University Press.
[29] Woolf, R. (2000). Callicles and Socrates. Psychic (Dis)Harmony in the Gorgias. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 18, 1‒40.