Book contents
- Plato’s Gorgias
- Cambridge Critical Guides
- Plato’s Gorgias
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Gorgias of Leontini and Plato’s Gorgias
- Chapter 2 Ancient Readers of the Gorgias
- Chapter 3 Philosophy and the Just Life in the Gorgias
- Chapter 4 Socrates and Coherent Desire (Gorgias 466a–468e)
- Chapter 5 The Ethical Function of the Gorgias’ Concluding Myth
- Chapter 6 Shame in the Gorgias
- Chapter 7 Desire and Argument in Plato’s Gorgias
- Chapter 8 Cooperation and the Search for Truth
- Chapter 9 Freedom, Pleonexia, and Persuasion in Plato’s Gorgias
- Chapter 10 Revealing Commitments
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Critical Guides
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 May 2024
- Plato’s Gorgias
- Cambridge Critical Guides
- Plato’s Gorgias
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Gorgias of Leontini and Plato’s Gorgias
- Chapter 2 Ancient Readers of the Gorgias
- Chapter 3 Philosophy and the Just Life in the Gorgias
- Chapter 4 Socrates and Coherent Desire (Gorgias 466a–468e)
- Chapter 5 The Ethical Function of the Gorgias’ Concluding Myth
- Chapter 6 Shame in the Gorgias
- Chapter 7 Desire and Argument in Plato’s Gorgias
- Chapter 8 Cooperation and the Search for Truth
- Chapter 9 Freedom, Pleonexia, and Persuasion in Plato’s Gorgias
- Chapter 10 Revealing Commitments
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Critical Guides
Summary
Late in the Gorgias, Socrates urges Callicles to take their conversation seriously and speak his mind: “for our discussion is about this: how one should live” (500b–c). Many find the work’s treatment of this topic profoundly moving. An example in antiquity is the Corinthian farmer who supposedly abandoned farming for philosophy after reading the Gorgias. The dialogue’s effect is not usually so drastic, but the Gorgias still speaks urgently to many readers on this central question we all face.
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- Information
- Plato's GorgiasA Critical Guide, pp. 1 - 6Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024