Alētheia in Gorgias of Leontini. An Excerpt from the History of Truth

• Authors: Lars Leeten

Abstracts

EN

It is often assumed that the concept of alētheia, or ‘truth’, in Gorgias of Leontini belongs to the art of rhetoric. Along these lines, it is usually understood as an aesthetic concept or even a mere ‘adornment’ of speech. In this paper, it is argued, by contrast, that Gorgianic alētheia is a definable criterion of speech figuring in the practice of moral education. While the ‘truth’ of a logos indeed has to be assessed on aesthetic grounds, the underlying concept of alētheia is predominantly ethical. For Gorgias, speech is ‘true’ when it promotes virtue (aretē) by being expressive of virtue. The principle stated in the opening passage of the Encomium of Helen, that a speaker has ‘to praise what is praiseworthy and to blame what is blameworthy’, explains precisely this understanding of alētheia.

Keywords

EN

Gorgias of Leontini; sophists; history of truth; alētheia; Pindar; Encomium of Helen

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Peitho. Examina Antiqua
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 45-64

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Lars Leeten

• University of Hildesheim, Germany

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Identifiers

DOI

10.14746/PEA.2022.1.3

Biblioteka Nauki

28408713