Gorgias

What is the difference between persuasion and truth? In Plato's Gorgias, Socrates confronts the famous orator Gorgias and his followers, asking whether the art of rhetoric can be a genuine guide to life or merely a knack for flattery. The conversation soon turns to deeper questions: Is it better to suffer wrong than to do it? Can a tyrant who escapes punishment be truly happy? What is the good life, and does it depend on power and pleasure or on justice and self-control?

This lively dialogue introduces readers to some of Plato's most memorable characters, including the young Polus and the bold Callicles, who challenges conventional morality and argues that the strong should rule. Socrates meets their challenges with rigorous argument, vivid analogies, and a closing myth about judgment after death. The Gorgias remains one of the most accessible and dramatic of Plato's works, and its themes of justice, happiness, and the use and abuse of persuasion are as urgent today as they were in ancient Athens.

This edition contains the complete text in Benjamin Jowett's classic translation with Jowett's own introduction and analysis, a new introduction for first-time readers, a guide to key ideas, a summary of the dialogue, an exploration of its major themes, a glossary of terms, and discussion questions for students and book clubs.