Polus (
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
: Πῶλος, "colt"; fl. c. 5th century BCE) was an
ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
philosophical figure best remembered for his depiction in the writing of
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
. He was a pupil of the famous
orator
An orator, or oratist, is a public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled.
Etymology
Recorded in English c. 1374, with a meaning of "one who pleads or argues for a cause", from Anglo-French ''oratour'', Old French ''orateur'' (14th ...
Gorgias, and teacher of
oratory from the city of
Acragas,
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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, demographi ...
.
Views
Almost everything that is known about Polus comes from the
Socratic dialogues of Plato. He features heavily in the ''
Gorgias'', a dialogue on the nature of rhetoric. Polus also appears in the ''
Phaedrus'' and the ''
Theages
''Theages'' ( el, Θεάγης) is a dialogue attributed to Plato, featuring Demodocus, Socrates and Theages. There is debate over its authenticity; W. R. M. Lamb draws this conclusion from his opinion that the work is inferior and un-Socratic, ...
''. Outside of Plato's work, he is also mentioned in Book 1 of
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
's ''
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
''.
Much of what is known about Polus comes from Plato's ''Gorgias''. What we get from this text is a look into Polus' beliefs about rhetoric. Polus advertises rhetoric as the quick route to the life of a tyrant who can run over others and escape punishment for his crimes. Polus saw rhetoric as the highest of all human arts and thinks that rhetoric is the only knowledge one needs to live well. Polus also saw rhetorical knowledge as a matter of experience rather than an art. Polus believed that experience makes our life to proceed in accordance with art whereas inexperience causes it to proceed in accordance with chance. Digging deeper into the ''Gorgias'' shows that Polus and Socrates often clash, and that Socrates purposely criticized rhetoric in order to trigger Polus' shameless defense of rhetoric. Polus is also seen as calling attention to rhetoric for its capacity for injustice. Polus had many philosophical views that did not directly agree with Socrates views. Polus sees rhetorical knowledge as something that comes from experience and sees rhetoric as something that is used for evil and serves a tyrannical desire in one's life.
See also
*
List of speakers in Plato's dialogues
following is a list of the speakers found in the dialogues traditionally ascribed to Plato, including extensively quoted, indirect and conjured speakers. Dialogues, as well as Platonic '' Epistles'' and '' Epigrams'', in which these individuals ...
References
Further reading
* Polus, Plato, and Aristotle by R. Renehan p. 68-72 "The Classical Quarterly", 01/1995, Volume 45, Issue 1.
* Ancient Greek Philosophy: From the Presocratics to the Hellenistic Philosophers by Thomas A. Blackson, Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (March 7, 2011).
* The Unity of Plato's Gorgias: Rhetoric, Justice, and the Philosophic Life by Devin Stauffer, Cambridge University Press (April 10, 2006).
External links
* 461b
Ancient Athenians
Ancient Greek ethicists
Ancient Greek rhetoricians
Greek educators
5th-century BC philosophers
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
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