Of the ancient Greek Sophists, Gorgias of Leontini (ca. 483-ca. 376 b.c.e.) has endured more than his share of insistent detractors. Aristophanes depicted him as a barbaric sycophant, Plato considered him an opportunistic charlatan indifferent to truth and morality, and Aristotle saw him as a gaudy but inept stylist. Scott Consigny joins the commentators who find merit in Gorgias's thought, but his perceptions of Gorgias differ from those of the two most influential efforts at rehabilitation. He maintains that both the "subjectivist" reading by Hegel and the "empiricist" reading by George...
Of the ancient Greek Sophists, Gorgias of Leontini (ca. 483-ca. 376 b.c.e.) has endured more than his share of insistent detractors. Aristophanes depi...
