Socrates' Political Science: Theory and Practice, A Study of Socrates' Methods in Plato’s Gorgias and Apology of Socrates

In this essay, I explore a claim that Socrates makes in Plato’s Gorgias where he professes to be the only true practitioner of the political art in Athens, the only true statesman. I argue that the Gorgias enables readers to have a greater understanding of how Socrates conceives his own purpose and relationship with Athens as a practitioner of the “true science of politics” as he calls it and as a skilled user of what he develops as the "true art of rhetoric." This ennobling art of rhetoric, which Socrates professes to be a practitioner of, is opposed to the sycophantic and flattering art propagated by Gorgias and others. Furthermore, I argue that the view of rhetoric and politics that Socrates develops in the Gorgias serves as a foundation for his actions and statements in the Apology of Socrates.