Full text · 15 chaptersNarrated in your voice
What it's about
Socrates questions the famous teacher of rhetoric Gorgias, his pupil Polus and the ambitious Callicles about what the art of persuasion is for. The argument turns into a clash over whether it is better to do wrong or to suffer it, and whether the strong should take what they can, and it ends with a myth of judgment after death. In Jowett's translation.
Reading plan
Pick a finish date and Genius lays out the days — the plan shows today's target and keeps you honest.
Read together
Start a circle and share the code — everyone sees everyone's honest place in the book. Accountability, not leaderboards.
Who it's for
- Readers wary of politics run on persuasion and spin - Anyone who has wondered whether might makes right - Students of rhetoric who want its oldest critique
