Week of Sep 8 Post

After reading the first eight pages to Gorgias and Socrates discussion on what Gorgias proper title was and what he was skillful at, I have to say their conversation went into extreme depth to figure out the details and opinion of Gorgias as questioned by Socrates. During their discussion, Gorgias claims to produce the greatest good to men; essentially this good is “the ability to persuade with speeches either judges in the law courts or statesmen in the council-chamber.” After claiming this, Socrates goes on to question Gorgias about knowledge, to which I found interesting. Socrates denotes that there can be two forms of persuasion, “belief without knowledge, and the other sure knowledge.” Still the question I raise for Socrates is what can be defined as knowledge, and for the sake of argument, can there be such a thing as false knowledge and or true knowledge? In my opinion, I believe Socrates would argue that there is such thing as false knowledge and true knowledge. With addition, if I were to convince a student that two plus two equaled five and they believed it to be so, do they possess false knowledge or true knowledge, because to them two plus two factually equals five. It is what I taught them, so it is what they factually believe to be right. Truthfully, two plus two equals four. This is true knowledge, at least for me, because it is the way I was educated with numbers. If I know two plus two to be four, yet teach two plus two to be five then at what point does false knowledge become true knowledge, or vice versa, when does true knowledge become false knowledge, and if I successfully educate a student of either means is it truly knowledge or did I simply utilize rhetoric to persuade an individual of a false or true belief. In short if rhetoric pushes to form knowledge then what is knowledge, successful persuasion?