COMPETING MODELS OF PAIDEIA IN PLATO’S GORGIAS

Abstract

This chapter examines the competing models of paideia that is implicit in the explicit contrast between rhetoric and dialectic, which is drawn by Plato through the dialogical encounters between Socrates, Gorgias, Polus, and Callicles. In dramatic terms, Gorgias and Polus represent the rhetorical tradition with its own particular paideia , while Socrates represents an alternative paideia that is promoted through dialectical inquiry. Socratic dialectic is a more leisurely practice that aims to persuade a single interlocutor about a matter of knowledge and without time constraints, as Plato shows in the Gorgias . Some further implications of Plato's contrast between different models of paideia in the Gorgias emerge later when Socrates engages in discussion with Callicles, an Athenian citizen who has invested in rhetoric in order to promote his own political influence. Polus imagines that he has refuted Socrates by appealing to common opinion, but Socrates himself has not admitted a single point. Keywords: Gorgias ; paideia ; Plato; refutation; rhetoric; Socratic dialectic