In the Encomium of Helen, Gorgias set forth an argument in defense of Helen of Troy, who after being swept away by the enemy became an object of crude jocularity amongst the Trojans. Through rhetoric he lays out his argument which includes his belief that she was led astray by the use of powerful speech. Through this argument we see Gorgias’ definition of rhetoric come to life as he attempts to free Helen of all blame. His definition is found to set the use of rhetoric above all other means to persuade, convince, or entice. He argues that the “powerful lord” – speech – is the means by which even the divine fall. Rhetoric, he says is a “false argument” derived from opinion of the speaker who does not have full, factual knowledge of all things past, present or future, but who takes his opinions and forms a logical, though in at least one way false, argument in order to persuade an audience. Therefore, knowing that the point of this fragment was to simply prove that a completely false argument can and will be accepted by an audience if presented logically and persuasively, it is almost laughable to know that Gorgias impact is still here today. The reason of course, is because of the power of speech/rhetoric.
In relation to the sophistic philosophy of rhetoric, one could argue that Gorgias’ definition of rhetoric ties in. The Sophists advocated the use of rhetoric in establishing one’s prominence both socially/politically as well as economically. Such a view has the potential of lending itself to crookedness or underhandedness as on attempts to persuade, for personal gain is supreme. In that respect, both definitions comply despite how Gorgias uses a backdoor, shady manner of convincing people to believe something in stead of using such rhetoric to gain something for himself (except for a victory in argument of course). In regards to my own growing definition of rhetoric, I am pleased to take the moral high ground in relation both Gorgias and the Sophists, for I feel both lent themselves to focussing on what the use of rhetoric could get you personally. I feel as if rhetoric is a means to facilitating the acquisition of knowledge and wisdom, as well as a means to present a personal belief to an inquirer in a manner that they will best understand because of its logical lay out. In short, rhetoric makes more efficient the acquisition of knowledge and presentation thereof through the logical lay out of the information at hand.
In the Encomium of Helen, Gorgias main point in regards to rhetoric is to puff it up as the end all be all of means by which humans both persuade and are persuaded. He sets rhetoric upon a pedestal as the crux of human enticement by presenting the downfall of Helen as a result of the enemy’s effective – though immoral – use of rhetorical speech. In Gorgias’ eyes, rhetoric always wins.
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