What is Gorgias’ ‘not being’? A brief journey through the Treatise, the Apology of Palamedes and the Encomium of Helen

Archai: Revista de Estudos Sobre as Origens Do Pensamento Ocidental 31 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Assuming that a nihilist reading of Gorgias’ thought is to be ruled out, the issue of ‘not being’ remains one of the thorniest in his philosophy; indeed, it is fair to conclude that Gorgias is deeply concerned with ‘not being’. But what, after all, is Gorgias’ ‘not being’? This paper aims to answer this crucial question, by taking into consideration Gorgias’ main texts. Each of them provides a serious – although not always explicit – account of ‘not being’. Overall, the aim is to show that Gorgias’ account of ‘not being’ is not concerned with ‘non-existence’ at all. It is deeply concerned, however, with falsehood and language. The paper will, therefore, be structured as follows: in part 1, the Treatise and specifically the the first section of the Particular Proof will be addressed and its ‘linguistic’ conception of ‘not-being’ fully exploited; in part 2, the Apology of Palamedes will be taken into account, in order to enucleate its ‘not-being-as-falsehood’ argument; the results from part 1 and part 2 will allow us, in part 3, to provide an analysis of the Encomium of Helen which points at its underlying conception of ‘not-being’.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Gorgias and the Weakness of Logos.Wolfgang-Rainer Mann - 2021 - In Joseph Andrew Bjelde, David Merry & Christopher Roser (eds.), Essays on Argumentation in Antiquity. Cham: Springer. pp. 49-67.
"Pochwała Heleny" Gorgiasza z Leontinoi (Gorgias' "Helen").Zbigniew Nerczuk - 2012 - Studia Antyczne I Mediewistyczne 10:17-36.
Introduction to "Sophistae".Rafael Ferber - 2014 - In Fulvia de Luise & Alessandro Stavru (eds.), Socratica III. Academia Verlag. pp. 201-203.
Gorgias, Encomium of Helen. [REVIEW]H. Ll Hudson-Williams - 1986 - The Classical Review 36 (1):131-131.
The Encomium on Helen, by Gorgias.Larue Van Hook - 1912 - Classical Weekly 6:122-123.

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-04-08

Downloads
15 (#809,217)

6 months
3 (#445,838)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

On Denoting.Bertrand Russell - 2005 - Mind 114 (456):873 - 887.
On referring.Peter F. Strawson - 1950 - Mind 59 (235):320-344.
The Objects of Thought.Tim Crane - 2013 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Speaking of nothing.Keith S. Donnellan - 1974 - Philosophical Review 83 (1):3-31.
The Thesis of Parmenides.Charles H. Kahn - 1969 - Review of Metaphysics 22 (4):700 - 724.

View all 11 references / Add more references