This is the first full-length monograph to address the religious, ethical, and political dimensions of Plato's Gorgias. The third longest and most serious dialogue has long been neglected because of the disconcerting moral and psychic demands it makes on its readers. Yet such a personal appropriation, equivalent to taking the uncanny daimon of Socrates back to one's cave or body, is the key to understanding the philosopher's paradoxical claim that nobody deliberately chooses to do evil. The dramatic action of the Gorgias shows how angry and insecure men can be led by demagogic rhetoric to perform violent and thoughtless deeds. The repeated performance of such actions has the effect of blinding their judgment to the extent that they truly know not what they do. Deliberately using the disastrous demagogue-driven Peloponnesian War as the backdrop for the Gorgias, Plato suggests that only Socrates practiced the true political art. This art seems to consist of undoing the insidious effects of rhetoric and making persons aware of the great potential for virtue and beauty present in their souls. Indeed, Socrates must be recognized as the discoverer of the human soul's strange power to transcend mimetic coercion and physical necessity. Lacking this vital self-knowledge, men live like dead souls in Hades - ruled by slanderous stories and seductive shadows. The Gorgias gives us Plato's fullest speculative re-construction of the worldview presupposed by Socrates' ironic words and noble deeds. Previous works of Nalin Ranasinghe (philosophy/Assumption College) are The Soul of Socrates (Cornell) and editor of Logos and Eros (St. Augustine's Press).
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent introduction to Plato's Gorgias,
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This review is from: Socrates in the Underworld: On Plato's Gorgias (Hardcover)
There are three excellent commentaries available on Plato's Gorgias: Seth Benardete's "The Rhetoric of Morality," Devin Stauffer's "The Unity of Plato's Gorgias,": The Rhetoric of Morality and Philosophy: Plato's Gorgias and Phaedrus]; [ASIN:0521108322 The Unity of Plato's 'Gorgias': Rhetoric, Justice, and the Philosophic Life and this book. Of the three, Rhanasinghe's book is the most accessible, and acknowledges the other two quite often in both agreement and disagreement. Moreover, I think that one might best be served by reading all three books in the reverse order of how I have listed them here.
As to the substance of the book which the other reviews here on Amazon make no mention of, the book does not disappoint. Ranasinghe makes the case that the Gorgias is the true Republic in that the rhetoricians Socrates engages with in the Gorgias are much more true to the nihilism of sophistry than Thrasymachus who orients the discussion of the Republic. Ranasinghe presents, in both argument and action, the passing of the torch as the presuppositions of rhetorical/sophistic flattery move from Gorgias to Polus and finally to Callicles. This is indicative of the title of the book. Specifically, within the dialogue itself there are a number of subtle references to Hades along with references to the cave of the Republic. What Ranasinghe argues is that "the deep skepticism that oratory actively incites in its practitioners, and procures as a kind of lasting hangover in its victims, concerning the inaccessibiilty of truth and reality to human speeches and deeds, turns reality itself into a kind of living Hades. In juxtaposition to this, Ranasinghe observes that the rhetoric we face in our consumer based society is imbued with the even more serious (rhetorical) advances of nihilism and historicism. Accordingly, Ranasinghe makes the case that the Gorgias is perhaps the most important dialogue in the Platonic corpus for the needs of our own time. More specifically, because knowledge is always on an endless trial in the face of nihilism and historicism, Ranasinghe's interpretation is refreshing given the wholesale dismissal of the Tradition of our Western philosophic tradition put forth by Postmodern thought beginning with Nietzsche and Heidegger. I cannot recommend Rhanasinghe's book enough as a guide to both the Gorgias in particular and the Platonic corpus as a whole. Moreover, Ranasinghe's witty writing style had me laughing out loud quite frequently.
3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It Really Does Read Like a Platonic Dialogue,
By Blank Czech "willbearit" (Northwest Georgia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Socrates in the Underworld: On Plato's Gorgias (Hardcover)
And it really is an original and startling defense of reasonable morality.
The intro alone is worth the price of the book.
1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reads like a Platonic Dialogue,
By Laches "laches" (MA, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Socrates in the Underworld: On Plato's Gorgias (Hardcover)
According to the eminent Platonist, Stanley Rosen, "Ranasinghe's book is an unusual blend of subtlety and wit that makes philosophy enjoyable. In this respect it resembles the Platonic dialogues"
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