Diss.--Tübingen. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 96-100.

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 231-248).

Thesis (M.A.)--Villanova University, 2009. / Political Science Dept. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis advisor: Christopher Bruell / No rational decision can be made concerning how to live without confronting the problem of justice—both what it is and whether it is good to be just. In this essay I examine Plato’s articulation of these problems in the Gorgias and the Republic. Through detailed analyses of Socrates’ exchanges with several interlocutors, I establish, first, that despite some real and apparent differences, all the interlocutors share the same fundamental conception of justice, which could be called justice as fairness or reciprocal equality (to ison). The core of justice lies in refraining from pleonexia (seeking to benefit oneself at the expense of another). Second, according to this view, the practice of justice is not intrinsically profitable; it is valuable only as a means to the acquisition or enjoyment of other, material goods. This conception thus implies that committing successful injustice is often more profitable than being just. Third, the critics of justice recognize and openly acknowledge this fact; hence, their position is more coherent than common opinion. Fourth, the core of the Socratic defense of justice lies in the claims that the practice of pleonexia is incompatible with the possession of a well-ordered soul and that the possession of a well-ordered soul is necessary for happiness. Thus, despite appearances to the contrary, Socrates does not argue that justice, as it is commonly conceived, is intrinsically profitable. He is able to refute the critics of justice because the latter lack a coherent understanding of the human good. Finally, Socrates’ defense of justice nonetheless remains incomplete because he deliberately refrains from giving a sufficient account of the nature of the soul and its good. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

A obra platônica pode ser dividida em três fases distintas que agrupam diálogos com características comuns. No entanto, alguns diálogos são de difícil colocação, pois possuem características comuns a mais de uma fase. O Górgias é um desses diálogos, por um lado, possui argumentos característicos dos primeiros diálogos, e, por outro, demonstra uma maturidade temática e uma postura dogmática de Sócrates que mais se aproxima da República, portanto, da segunda fase. Entender quais são as possibilidades de agrupamento dos diálogos de Platão é fundamental para se propor o deslocamento do Górgias dos diálogos socráticos para a segunda fase, ou seja, aproxima-lo do mesmo ambiente conceitual da República, e, a partir disto, começar a enxergar no texto elementos filosóficos relevantes ao desenvolvimento da filosofia moral e política de Platão. / The platonic work can be divided into three distinct phases which form groups of dialogues with common characteristics. Nevertheless, some dialogues are hard to be placed because have characteristics which are commons to more tan one phase. The Górgias is one of these dialogues, from one side, has arguments characteristically from the first dialogues and, from the other, demonstrate thematic maturity and a dogmatic posture from Sócrates which approximates more to the Republic, therefore, the second phase. To understand which are the possibilities of grouping the Plato dialogues is fundamental to propose shifting Górgias from the socratic dialogues to the second phase, therefore approaching it to the same environmental concept of Republic, and, from this point, start seeing in the text philosophical elements relevant to the development of the moral and political philosophy of Plato.

The author's inaugural dissertation, Erlangen, 1914.

This thesis offers Plato's readers a different approach to reading the Gorgias. Chief consideration is given to Plato's artistic plan as a rhetorician, rather than a strict moral philosopher. The display of his rhetorical genius works to support his arguments in favour of a certain kind of rhetoric. The usual argument that Plato is attacking rhetoric is rejected here. In its place the reader will see a Plato refuting his contemporaries' spurious form of rhetoric, as the rhetoric Plato represents and displays is a true craft, as genuine as the dialectic. Rhetoric is not without its shortcomings, but neither is the dialectic, and though Socrates says otherwise, it is because Plato is not Socrates. The argument for two Socrates is not advanced here, but his rhetorical tendencies are expressed in three debates whose overall message culminates in his prophetic myth of life after death. Plato introduces a new kind of visionary rhetoric that Socrates does not explicitly defend but which he nonetheless displays within the drama of the dialogue. Plato's views on rhetoric, then, are not merely the sum of Socrates' views on the Gorgias' theme, rather it is within the dramatic presentation of different views on rhetoric that Plato seeks to convey his defence of rhetoric.

A obra platônica pode ser dividida em três fases distintas que agrupam diálogos com características comuns. No entanto, alguns diálogos são de difícil colocação, pois possuem características comuns a mais de uma fase. O Górgias é um desses diálogos, por um lado, possui argumentos característicos dos primeiros diálogos, e, por outro, demonstra uma maturidade temática e uma postura dogmática de Sócrates que mais se aproxima da República, portanto, da segunda fase. Entender quais são as possibilidades de agrupamento dos diálogos de Platão é fundamental para se propor o deslocamento do Górgias dos diálogos socráticos para a segunda fase, ou seja, aproxima-lo do mesmo ambiente conceitual da República, e, a partir disto, começar a enxergar no texto elementos filosóficos relevantes ao desenvolvimento da filosofia moral e política de Platão. / The platonic work can be divided into three distinct phases which form groups of dialogues with common characteristics. Nevertheless, some dialogues are hard to be placed because have characteristics which are commons to more tan one phase. The Górgias is one of these dialogues, from one side, has arguments characteristically from the first dialogues and, from the other, demonstrate thematic maturity and a dogmatic posture from Sócrates which approximates more to the Republic, therefore, the second phase. To understand which are the possibilities of grouping the Plato dialogues is fundamental to propose shifting Górgias from the socratic dialogues to the second phase, therefore approaching it to the same environmental concept of Republic, and, from this point, start seeing in the text philosophical elements relevant to the development of the moral and political philosophy of Plato.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo central arrazoar sobre o conceito de Discursividade em GÃrgias de Leontino tomando como base duas de suas principais obras a nÃs acessÃveis, o Tratado sobre o nÃo-ser ou sobre a natureza e Elogio de Helena. Pretende-se demonstrar que o logos tem em GÃrgias um papel de inteiro destaque, sendo este um tema constante, do âmomentoâ no pensamento gorgiano, podendo este ser compreendido como o fio condutor da obra do Leontinense. NÃo obstante o reconhecimento do âmomentoâ do discurso em GÃrgias, demonstra-se tambÃm na presente pesquisa que esse à absolutamente dinÃmico, vivo, puro âmovimentoâ. Partindo de uma anÃlise do contexto sociocultural formador da sofÃstica â na qual sÃo apresentadas e discutidas as principais questÃes que envolvem os pensadores que sÃo relacionados neste movimento â segue-se para a discussÃo pormenorizada de ambos os textos, tendo como pressuposto de leitura para compreensÃo do Tratado a meontologia gorgiana que funda o âmomentoâ do discurso no pensamento ocidental, e do Elogio a onipotÃncia do logos que pÃe a realidade cultural na qual a natureza humana està posta em âmovimentoâ para que a tragicidade de nossa existÃncia seja suavizada. / The aim of this research is central reason on the concept of discursiveness in Gorgias of Leontino based two of his main works in the accessible, The Treaty on the Non-being or About The Nature and Praise of Helena. Intend to demonstrate that the Logos has in Georgias a role of full mention, and this is a constant theme of "moment" in gorgian thought, which may be understood as the wire of the work of the leontineese. Despite the recognition of "moment" of the speech in Gorgias, it shows that also in this research that this is absolutely dynamic, alive, pure "movement". Starting with an analysis of the sociocultural context of sophistry - in which are presented and discussed the main issues surrounding the thinkers who are related in this movement - is followed by detailed discussion of both texts, with the assumption of reading for understanding the Treaty in the gorgian Meontology founding the "moment" of discourse in Western thought, and praise the omnipotence of the logos that puts the cultural reality in which human nature is "movement" for the tragedy of our existence is softened.