Gorgias

Description

This is an English translation of Plato's dialogue of Socrates seeking the true definition of rhetoric, with an attempt to show the flaws of the sophistic orators. Includes speeches from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian Wars that reflect Plato's themes. Focus Philosophical Library translations are close to and are non-interpretative of the original text, with the notes and a glossary intending to provide the reader with some sense of the terms and the concepts as they were understood by Plato's immediate audience.

James A. Arieti (Ph.D. from Stanford University) is the Graves H. Thompson Professor of Classics at Hampden-Sydney College. He is the author of numerous books, on subjects that include Empedocles, Greek athletics, ancient medicine, Herodotus, Homer, Horace, Livy, Dante, Machiavelli, Philo, Plato, and the Septuagint. Roger M. Barrus (Ph.D. from Harvard) is Elliott Professor of Political Science at Hamden-Sydney College in Virginia, where he has taught since 1982. He is the author of articles and reviews and has delivered lectures on political philosophy, international relations, and American government and politics.

Arieti and Barrus have provided us with a fine contribution to the literature on Plato's Gorgias. This text includes a literal translation of the Gorgias with a helpful introductory essay, and copious notes. It includes a priceless appendix of the only literal translations available today of several key speeches from Thucydides, as well as a valuable glossary and appendices on the rules of dialectic that may be derived from the arguments of the Gorgias, and on Plato's use of the terms mythos and logos, with which not all scholars may agree, but which I think all should find of interest. - Michael Palmer, University of Maine