Gorgias
| Gorgias | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 485 BC Leontini |
| Died | c. 380 BC |
| Era | Pre-Socratic philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Sophism |
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Main interests
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Ontology, epistemology rhetoric, moral relativism |
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Notable ideas
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Paradoxologia |
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Influences
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Influenced
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Gorgias (/ˈɡɔːrdʒiəs/;Greek: Γοργίας Ancient Greek: [ɡorɡíaːs]; c. 485 – c. 380 BC) was a Greek sophist, Italiote, pre-Socratic philosopher and rhetorician who was a native of Leontini in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophists. Several doxographers report that he was a pupil of Empedocles, although he would only have been a few years younger. "Like other Sophists he was an itinerant, practicing in various cities and giving public exhibitions of his skill at the great pan-Hellenic centers of Olympia and Delphi, and charged fees for his instruction and performances. A special feature of his displays was to invite miscellaneous questions from the audience and give impromptu replies." He has been called "Gorgias the Nihilist" although the degree to which this epithet adequately describes his philosophy is controversial.
His chief claim to recognition is that he transplanted rhetoric from his native Sicily to Attica, and contributed to the diffusion of the Attic dialect as the language of literary prose.
Gorgias originated from Leontini, a Greek colony in Sicily, and what is often called the home of Spartan rhetoric. It is known that Gorgias had a father named Charmantides and two siblings – a brother named Herodicus and a sister who dedicated a statue to Gorgias in Delphi (McComiskey 6-7).
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