Gorgias

In this powerful and combative dialogue, Socrates confronts the celebrated teacher of rhetoric Gorgias and his followers, arguing that persuasion without truth is worthless and that it is better to suffer wrong than to do it. Ranging over justice, power, pleasure, and the good life, the debate builds to a searing clash between the philosophical life and the pursuit of worldly power. Passionate and morally urgent, Gorgias is among Plato’s most dramatic and relevant dialogues, a timeless challenge to demagoguery and the ethics of ambition. Vivid and profound, it poses questions about rhetoric, morality, and how to live that remain as pressing today as in ancient Athens.