Gorgias on Knowledge and the Powerlessness of <i>Logos</i>
In Gorgias’s Encomium of Helen and Defense of Palamedes, the orator draws attention to two important limitations of speech’s power that concern its different relationships to belief vs. knowledge. First, logos has the capacity to affect and change a person’s beliefs, but it is powerless to change or...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Humanities |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/12/1/9 |
| _version_ | 1827757160184938496 |
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| author | Josh Wilburn |
| author_facet | Josh Wilburn |
| author_sort | Josh Wilburn |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In Gorgias’s Encomium of Helen and Defense of Palamedes, the orator draws attention to two important limitations of speech’s power that concern its different relationships to belief vs. knowledge. First, logos has the capacity to affect and change a person’s beliefs, but it is powerless to change or undermine a person’s knowledge. Second, speech has the power to produce a new belief, but it is powerless to produce knowledge itself where knowledge is lacking. My primary aim in this essay is to examine Gorgias’s epistemology of persuasive logos with a view to illuminating these two limitations. I suggest that Gorgias’s claims in the Helen and Palamedes make the most sense when considered in the forensic and deliberative contexts in which the art of rhetoric thrived in ancient Greece. In such contexts the prevailing epistemology that contemporary orators take for granted is a kind of folk empiricism that privileges sense-perception as a source of knowledge, and I argue that Gorgias’s ideas about logos and its limitations are best understood in terms of that epistemological framework. Speech cannot make people “unknow” what they have seen with their own eyes, nor can it act as a surrogate or replacement for sense-perception itself. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:45:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7f1e75cdf3b141d88996a7394bec21d8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0787 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:45:01Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities |
| spelling | doaj.art-7f1e75cdf3b141d88996a7394bec21d82023-11-16T20:51:19ZengMDPI AGHumanities2076-07872023-01-01121910.3390/h12010009Gorgias on Knowledge and the Powerlessness of <i>Logos</i>Josh Wilburn0Department of Philosophy, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USAIn Gorgias’s Encomium of Helen and Defense of Palamedes, the orator draws attention to two important limitations of speech’s power that concern its different relationships to belief vs. knowledge. First, logos has the capacity to affect and change a person’s beliefs, but it is powerless to change or undermine a person’s knowledge. Second, speech has the power to produce a new belief, but it is powerless to produce knowledge itself where knowledge is lacking. My primary aim in this essay is to examine Gorgias’s epistemology of persuasive logos with a view to illuminating these two limitations. I suggest that Gorgias’s claims in the Helen and Palamedes make the most sense when considered in the forensic and deliberative contexts in which the art of rhetoric thrived in ancient Greece. In such contexts the prevailing epistemology that contemporary orators take for granted is a kind of folk empiricism that privileges sense-perception as a source of knowledge, and I argue that Gorgias’s ideas about logos and its limitations are best understood in terms of that epistemological framework. Speech cannot make people “unknow” what they have seen with their own eyes, nor can it act as a surrogate or replacement for sense-perception itself.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/12/1/9Gorgiasknowledgespeechlogosrhetoricepistemology |
| spellingShingle | Josh Wilburn Gorgias on Knowledge and the Powerlessness of <i>Logos</i> Humanities Gorgias knowledge speech logos rhetoric epistemology |
| title | Gorgias on Knowledge and the Powerlessness of <i>Logos</i> |
| title_full | Gorgias on Knowledge and the Powerlessness of <i>Logos</i> |
| title_fullStr | Gorgias on Knowledge and the Powerlessness of <i>Logos</i> |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gorgias on Knowledge and the Powerlessness of <i>Logos</i> |
| title_short | Gorgias on Knowledge and the Powerlessness of <i>Logos</i> |
| title_sort | gorgias on knowledge and the powerlessness of i logos i |
| topic | Gorgias knowledge speech logos rhetoric epistemology |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/12/1/9 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT joshwilburn gorgiasonknowledgeandthepowerlessnessofilogosi |