Gorgias by Plato (Πλάτων) (c. 428 BCE – c. 347 BCE) and Benjamin Jowett (1817 – 1893)

This dialogue brings Socrates face to face with the famous sophist Gorgias and his followers. It is a work likely completed around the time of “Republic” and illuminates many of the spiritual ideas of Plato. The spirituality, as Jowett points out in his wonderful introduction, has many ideas akin to Christianity, but is more generous as it reserves damnation only for the tyrants of the world. Some of the truths of Socrates, as presented by Plato, shine forth in this wonderful work on sophistry and other forms of persuasion or cookery. (Summary by Kevin Johnson)