Plato's Gorgias
A Critical Guide

Provides diverse perspectives on the Gorgias' advocacy of a philosophical, just life as against a life of rhetoric and injustice.

J. Clerk Shaw (Edited by)

9781108492218, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 May 2024

240 pages
23.5 x 16.1 x 1.8 cm, 0.49 kg

'The essays, taken together, serve as both a comprehensive introduction to the text and its time, as well as opening new courses of study and research. In fact, the volume deftly combines accessibility and depth such that almost any essay could be assigned in an undergraduate seminar alongside the text itself, while still being of interest to graduate students and researchers. Whether you are a teacher, scholar, or reader of Plato, this volume is sure to be of use.' Matthew H. Young, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Plato's Gorgias depicts a conversation between Socrates and a number of guests, which centers on the question of how one should live. This "choice of lives" is presented both as a choice between philosophy and ordinary political rhetoric, and as a choice between justice and injustice. The essays in this Critical Guide offer detailed analyses of each of the main candidates in the choice of lives, and of how the advocates for these ways of life understand and argue with each other. Several essays also relate the Gorgias to the philosophical and political context of its time and place. Together, these features of the volume illuminate the interpretive issues in the Gorgias and enable readers to achieve a thorough understanding of the philosophical issues which the work raises.

Introduction Clerk Shaw
1. Gorgias of Leontini and Plato's Gorgias Josh Wilburn
2. Ancient Readers of the Gorgias Harold Tarrant
3. Philosophy and the Just Life in the Gorgias Hugh Benson
4. Socrates and Coherent Desire (Gorgias 466a – 468e) Eric Brown and Clerk Shaw
5. The Ethical Function of the Gorgias' Concluding Myth Nich Baima
6. Shame in the Gorgias Olivier Renaut
7. Desire and Argument in Plato's Gorgias Frisbee Sheffield
8. Cooperation and the Search for Truth: Socrates and Callicles Terence Irwin
9. Freedom, Pleonexia, and Persuasion in Plato's Gorgias Ryan Balot
10. Revealing Commitments Alison Murphy
Bibliography
General index.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA]