Gorgias

After spending all day today sick I wrote more than a few blogs and the first I decided to put up is my blog on the pupil of Empedocles, Gorgias. Born in 483 Gorgias is well known for his metaphysical view that Nothing exist. He said that nothing exist (A) and even if existence does it exist it is impossible to determine (B). Lastly he says that even if it could be determined it could never be communicated. This may be a reason that he proclaims that although there is a such thing as right and wrong he believes in manipulation like many of the Sophists. In a way Gorgias can be used as an exact example of everything bad the Sophists have been accused of. He did not seem as worried about truth as he was about winning an argument. Although he is not determined to be the inventor of paradoxical language his "mastery" of it often leads historians to believe that he in fact was its creator. I do not consider him a philosopher but more a master of rhetoric who did as much if not more to hurt philosophy as to improve it. I think this is why Plato to finds quarrel with Gorgias. Although I do not agree with many of his writings and ideas, he is still remembered and studied today because he did in fact have a great impact on the minds of the men who would later change the world.