Gorgias
Sophist · Europe · 483 to 375 BCE
Sicilian teacher of speech who argued that nothing exists, that it cannot be known and that it cannot be told.
What it is
Gorgias was a Greek teacher of public speaking, called a sophist, who came from Leontini in Sicily and lived from about 483 to about 375 BCE. He is remembered for a short work arguing that nothing exists, and for speeches that show how far words can move an audience.
He is said to have studied with Empedocles. In 427 BCE he came to Athens at the head of an embassy from his city. After that he travelled through Greece, teaching and speaking, and he is said to have died at Larissa in Thessaly at the age of 108.
The main ideas
- Nothing exists. His treatise On the Nonexistent sets out three claims. First, nothing exists. Second, even if something did, it could not be known. Third, even if it could be known, it could not be told to anyone else.
- Why this matters. The argument runs through being, thought and speech, and asks whether words can ever carry what is real from one mind to another.
- The power of speech. In his speech in praise of Helen, he says that speech works on the soul much as drugs work on the body. Some words bring pain, some joy, some fear.
- Defending the blamed. In that speech he argues that Helen of Troy, long blamed for the Trojan War, should not be blamed, whatever it was that took her to Troy: force, love or persuasion.
- Speaking on demand. He was known for offering to speak on any subject an audience named.
What it looks like in practice
Imagine someone asked to argue for a side they do not hold. Gorgias would treat this as a craft: to find the strongest case, to choose the words and to see how the listeners respond. This is an illustration of his method, not a passage from his writing.
Books and moments
- On the Nonexistent, also called On Nature, is lost. It is known only through two later summaries, one by Sextus Empiricus.
- Encomium of Helen is his speech in her defence.
- Defence of Palamedes is a speech for a mythical figure accused of treason.
- Four works are attributed to him in all, the fourth being a funeral oration.
- Plato wrote a dialogue named after him that argues rhetoric is not a true craft.
Questions and criticism
- Was he serious? Some call him a nihilist. Many scholars now doubt that label, because an argument that proves nothing can be known would undermine itself. It may instead be a display of skill, or a way of showing that speech, not the world behind it, is what we can study.
- Truth or persuasion? Plato charges that his art aims at winning belief, not at knowing. It is fair to ask whether a teacher of speech is responsible for the truth of what his students say.
- What did he teach? Little of his writing survives, and the surviving texts are playful and hard to read. Scholars disagree about what framework, if any, lies behind them.
Close neighbours
Protagoras was another leading sophist, and Socrates and Plato argued against the sophists as a group. Empedocles, his reported teacher, belongs to the generation before him.
Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 29 October 2026. The sources are listed below.
Who they connect to
Reacted against by
- Plato · Plato's dialogue on him attacks speech that persuades without caring for the truth.
Other Sophist thinkers
- Protagoras · 490 to 420 BCE