Plato, Gorgias, section 455a

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[455a]

Socrates
Thus rhetoric, it seems, is a producer of persuasion for belief, not for instruction in the matter of right and wrong.

Gorgias
Yes.

Socrates
And so the rhetorician's business is not to instruct a law court or a public meeting in matters of right and wrong, but only to make them believe; since, I take it, he could not in a short while instruct such a mass of people in matters so important.

Gorgias
No, to be sure.

Socrates
Come then, let us see what actually is our account of rhetoric:

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 3 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1967.

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Commentary references to this page (4):
- Gonzalez Lodge, Commentary on Plato: Gorgias, 453e
- Gonzalez Lodge, Commentary on Plato: Gorgias, 464c
- Gonzalez Lodge, Commentary on Plato: Gorgias, 513c
- James Adam, The Republic of Plato, 2.370B
Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (7):
- LSJ, δι^δασκα^λ-ικός
- LSJ, εἴδω
- LSJ, φέρω
- LSJ, ὄχλος
- LSJ, πεισ-τικός
- LSJ, περί
- LSJ, πιστ-ευτικός