In Defense of Plato's Gorgias

Histories of rhetoric have characterized Plato as an opponent of rhetoric and have seen Gorgias primarily as a negative critique of rhetorical abuses. Such an understanding ignores the dialogue's own rhetoric and slights Plato's insight into the problem of inescapable and inadvertent injury that confronts anyone who uses language. But it is such injury that makes rhetoric philosophically interesting. Socrates's claim that the value of rhetoric lies in its ability to allow us to attack our loved ones is not an ironic dismissal of rhetoric but part of his attempt to develop the ethical point of refutation, as Gorgias itself is not an attempt to prove the obvious point that rhetoric can be abused but rather an eloquent argument as to why rhetoric should be taken seriously.