GORGIAS

JESSIE A. AQUILLO|AB- PHILOSOPHY I

GORGIAS n. gor-jas
Born in Sicily around the year 483 B. C.
Disciple of Empedocles.
On Nature or Non- Being is his main
philosophical work
View on Truth
Protagoras and Gorgias
ON TRUTH.
PROTAGORAS GORGIAS
man is the There is no truth
measure of
all things
Such that, Gorgias assert his claim expressed
in his extraordinary notions:

(1)NOTHING EXISTS
(2) If anything exists,
it is incomprehensible
(3) If it is comprehensible,
it cannot be communicated
NOTHING EXISTS

(1)If anything exists it must be

being, non- being or both.
 IT CANNOT BE NON- BEING
- Non being does not exist, so
what exist cannot be non-being
 IT CANNOT BE BOTH
- It cannot be Non- being,
therefore it cannot be both
 IT CANNOT BE BEING
- If it were Being, it must be
everlasting (eternal),
created (temporal), or both
1. It is not temporal
a. If it is temporal, then it has a
beginning
b. Thus it came from what is not
Being
c. But Non-Being does not exist
d. Hence, it is not temporal
2. It cannot be both
a. It cannot be either eternal
or temporal
b. Hence, it cannot be both
3. It is not eternal
a. If it is eternal, then it has no
beginning
b. Therefore it is without limit and
so boundless
c. Therefore it has no position
i. To have a position is to be
contained in something
ii. But to be boundless is not to be so
contained.
iii. Hence, it has no position
d. Therefore it is nowhere
e. But to exist is to be somewhere
f. Hence, it is not eternal
HENCE, NOTHING EXISTS
IF ANYTHING EXISTS,
IT IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE!
(1)The human mind can conceive of
Non-Beings
(2) Therefore, Non-Being is the object
of human thought!
(just as light is the object of sight, and
sound is the object of hearing)
(3.) But if Non-Being is the object of human
thought, then Being is not the object of
human thought.

(4.) Hence, the human mind is not to

be trusted with Being and so existing
things cannot be thought—they
can only be witnessed by the senses.
IF ANYTHING IS COMPREHENSIBLE,
IT IS INCOMMUNICABLE!
(1)What exists is perceptible and there
are no interchanges between
different perceptions.

Communication is about speech

(logos), not about the things that
exist!
IF ANYTHING IS COMPREHENSIBLE,
IT IS INCOMMUNICABLE!
(1)Furthermore, just as the perceptible
are not interchangeable, speech
cannot be equated with that which
exists.

Therefore, speech can never

exactly represent the perceptible
IF ANYTHING IS COMPREHENSIBLE,
IT IS INCOMMUNICABLE!
Hence, speech cannot give any
information about anything
perceptible—it gives only information
about what is spoken

Thus, if anything exists and is

comprehensible, it is incommunicable
Since NOTHING EXISTS, there
could be no reliable
knowledge, and certainly no
truth.
He abandoned philosophy and
turned to rhetoric and tried
to perfect it as the art of
persuasion.
MIGHT IS
RIGHT ,399 BC
THRASYMACHUS
JESSIE A. AQUILLO | AB PHILOSOPHY I
THRASYMACHUS
Portrayed as the Sophist
who asserted that injustice
is to be preferred to the
life of justice.
“INJUSTICE PAYS”
Not only at the meager level of
pick-pocket but for those who
carry injustice to the perfection
and make themselves masters of
whole cities and nations.
People should aggressively
pursue their own interests in
a virtually unlimited form of
self- assertion.
JUSTICE as being the
interest of the stronger.
MIGHT IS RIGHT
Christian and Lyndon is
having a fight for Gal Gadot!

CLASS BEADLE FORMATOR

Laws are made by
the ruling party for
its own interest.

LAWS DEFINES WHAT IS RIGHT

Pres. Rodrigo Duterte imposed extra
judicial killing as the process of
excommunicating drug lords and users.
RIGHT therefore, means
the interest of the party
established in power.
MORALITY
reduces