Gorgias (Image source: Wikimedia Commons, from an Italian book published in 1818)

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Part 4 of 10 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here)

Ethics as an Afterthought

Is Socrates right that sophistry is essentially amoral and technocratic? After all, the sophists were widely seen as not just teachers of rhetoric, but also as teachers of morals. However, as we shall see, both Polus and Callicles strongly embrace the amoral and technocratic idea of sophistry. Moreover, in the Meno — which is set in 402 BCE, after the Peloponnesian War and the latest possible date of the Gorgias — Meno tells Socrates: