Plato’s Gorgias begins as an interrogation of the nature of oratory. Socrates presses the famous orator Gorgias, his first interlocutor, to tell him “what sort of man he is” (447c), hoping to reach an agreed-upon definition of oratory. Gorgias initially classifies oratory as an “art” (techne), identifying it as the art of producing conviction on the subject of right and wrong. However, Socrates is soon able to expose deficiencies in Gorgias’s definition of oratory. Throughout the dialogue, Socrates suggests that oratory is based on opinion, not true knowledge, and is therefore not so sure a guide to right and wrong as philosophy.

One major theme in the dialogue is the distinction Socrates draws between knowledge and belief: Knowledge (episteme) must be true, while belief (doxa) may be true or false. Gorgias, apparently agreeing with Socrates’s distinction, makes the mistake of defining oratory as the “art” of producing conviction based on belief rather than imparting true knowledge. Gorgias, and later Polus, are indeed more interested in the orator’s ability to hold power and influence over the masses, with Gorgias at one point launching into an encomium of oratory and proclaiming that “oratory embraces and controls almost all other spheres of human activity” (456a).