Socrates is one of the most revered philosophers of all time, with some people even contending him to be the founder of the Western branch of this discipline. Furthermore, democracy is one of the most celebrated ideals of the contemporary world, even though it was born in this philosopher’s home nation of Ancient Greece. Nevertheless, in his lifetime, Socrates saw the decline of the democracy, and logically had many critiques to make with regards to this system of government. Having people take decisions, directly or indirectly, poses many problems, the greatest of which Socrates relates to rhetoric. For him, democracy was suspicious because a well-talking politician could sway public opinion in an immoral way, leading to the pollution of everybody’s souls.
Even though the Gorgias is often caricatured as a critique of rhetoric, it has important political implications. This is due to the fact that, for Socrates, “Rhetoric [] is the ghost or counterfeit of a part of politics” (Plato). He believes that rhetoric make politics cheap, unworthy. This is because it has the power to deeply sway voters towards an illogical and detrimental decision. He asks himself if deceit “applies not only to the body, but also to the soul: in either there may be that which gives the appearance of health and not the reality?” (Plato). He believes that politicians can readily push voters towards a choice that is seemingly healthy, yet in reality is harmful for them. He believes that in both of the cases, both in the body and in the soul, this would lead to chaos.
The counterargument that a person would make today, and the one they made then, was that this would favor a tyrant. Nevertheless, Socrates believes that this is something to that one should prefer, because they do not actually have power, but are forced to act according to what is good. For him, “rhetoricians and tyrants have the least possible power in states, as I was just now saying; for they do literally nothing which they will, but only what they think best” (Plato). He states that tyrants are always led to do what they think is best, not what they want to do, because they desire to keep their nation in a good state. This is not necessarily true for the people in a democracy, who are encouraged to present their will as a policy.
Nevertheless, this is only accessory to Socrates, who is really worried about the souls of the citizens. He links the health of this object to the decisions and responsibilities one undertakes. In this fashion, it would be better for a tyrant to risk himself than to have a whole city condemned, especially out of ignorance. In an almost utilitarian argument, he sacrifices one in order to save the many.
In conclusion, even though Western civilization lauds democracy as an ideal, the great philosopher Socrates believed that it was something to be intrinsically suspicious of, as deceitful politicians could use rhetoric to make people take bad decisions, harming their souls. He finds rhetoric the art of leading people to believe things that are not necessarily true; therefore, he does not find it to be as good as many others. Socrates thought that this could do much harm to a city, because somebody could use it to lead people towards making a morally reprehensible decision. This would mean that all of their souls would be tarnished out of ignorance. Perhaps this is the greatest argument that he brings up: not everybody is qualified to take the decisions necessary to run a government. Everybody has a different niche in the world, and they should dedicate themselves to what they are best at, which not necessarily includes leading a whole nation.
Works Cited
Plato. Gorgias. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. The Internet Classics Archive. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2016. <http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/gorgias.html>.
