In the Gorgias Plato offers a synthesis of what he thinks about the bitter conflict between philosophical and non-philosophical approaches to one’s responsibilities in private and public life. This book contributes to a deeper understanding of this historically and conceptually rich canvas by shedding light on its main topics: speech in its philosophical and non-philosophical forms, psychology in relation to virtuous life, and politics which charges the two former topics with high stakes that call for personal choices.
David Machek, Ph.D. (2015), University of Toronto, is a lecturer at the University of Berne and a research fellow at Charles University. He has recently published a monograph The Life Worth Living in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy (2023).
Vladimír Mikeš, Ph.D. (2009), Charles University in Prague, is a researcher at the Czech Academy of Sciences (Institute of Philosophy). He has published and edited mainly on the Stoics and Plato, including Le paradoxe stoïcien: liberté de l’action déterminée (2016) and Plato’s Cratylus (2022).
This book is of interest to specialists and advanced students in ancient philosophy, as well as in modern theories of rhetoric (or argumentation) and politics.