Gorgiasby Philip Adams"That the things thought which are non-existent is plain ; for if the things thought are existent, all things thought exist, and in this way too in which one has thought them. But this is contrary to sense. For if someone thinks of a man flying over the sea, it does not follow at once that a man is flying over the sea. So that the things thought are not existent [=the thought is not a thought of being.]" Gorgias (483-376 BC) was a Sophist from Leontini, Sicily who first traveled to Athens in 427 as an ambassador from his city. After successfully soliciting aid from the Athenians against Syracuse, Gorgias returned to Greece, where he became known as the "father of all Sophists." While in Greece, Gorgias earned more money than any other sophist for three main reasons: He lived to be more than 100 years old; he had no family to support; and he wandered to much to be liable for taxes in any city. One of Gorgias' main contributions to philosophy is his essay "On Nature," which exists only in paraphrases. It is in this essay that Gorgias expresses his main philosophical ideas:
Gorgias employs Zeno of Elea's ideas about multiplicity and motion to support his first premise. He argues that only being exists, and becoming is not at all. Beings must have a beginning either from being or non-being. If it is from being, then there is no beginning. A beginning from non-being is impossible. If something comes from something, then there's no beginning, and something can't come from nothing. Either way, nothing exists because there is no beginning of anything. His idea of anything in existence being unknowable is "part and parcel" of the whole Sophistic tendency of thought. Gorgias identifies knowledge with sense-perception. Since sense-perception differs from person to person, and even in the same person, the object itself cannot be known. The object can only be perceived, but different perceptions will not agree with one another, and the truth about the object will remain unknown. Gorgias' third idea is that even if something can be known, it cannot be communicated. This is also based on the idea of differing perceptions and man's incapability to understand what someone else is trying to communicate to them. Gorgias believes that the only way to understand something is to experience it. People cannot truly understand each other because of the problem of varying perceptions. Since people have different ideas about the same thing, no conceptual ideas actually exist. Many of Gorgias' writings are unrecovered and only excerpts exist in paraphrases such as Plato's dialogue, "Gorgias" and the "Sextus Empiricus."Gorgias was a student of Empedocles, and also used Zeno of Elea's works to support his philosophies. In Greece, Gorgias taught Thucydides and Isocrates, among many others. Some internet resources for Gorgias: Also used: |