When Socrates starts asking questions, it is not Gorgias who attempts to give the first answer but Gorgias’ acquaintance Polus. He, rather comically, chimes in when Socrates asks, “In what art would you say Gorgias is skilled?” Polus pompously states that Gorgias is “one of the best, and the art in which he is a proficient is the noblest.” Socrates’ response, I imagine he says it with a sly smile, was, “Polus has been taught how to make a capital speech, Gorgias; but . . . . he has not exactly answered the question which he was asked.”
From this point on, the conversation is strictly between Gorgias and Socrates as Socrates pegs questions at Gorigas about the profession and definition of rhetorician and rhetoric, respectively. The main question, in its most basic form before Socrates reaches his refutation, asks “with what is rhetoric concerned?” Gorgias answers that just as music is concerned with melodies, rhetoric is concerned with discourse, but not all forms of discourse. After much more prompting, Socrates is able to pull a distinctively more detailed response as to what rhetoric does from Gorgias: “What is there greater than the word in which persuades the judges in the courts, or the senators in the council, or the citizens in the assembly or that any other political meeting? – if you have the power of uttering this word, you will have the physician your slave, and the trainer your slave, and the money-maker of whom you talk will be found to gather treasures, not for himself, but for you who are able to speak and to persuade the multitude.”
From here, the conversation continues with this being Gorgias’ definition and the two begin to debate the use of the word ‘persuade’ and whether true power lies in persuasion or knowledge. Using Gorigas’ definition, rhetoric could be a large problem if continually used to persuade those who know much more than us about certain subjects. Do you think that it is fair for Gorgias to believe that he can hold sway over people that are experts in their field? Which do you believe holds more power, persuasion or knowledge?