Trust in the Word as a Political and Pedagogical Path to Happiness, from Gorgias to Plato

Greek thought is particularly concrete because, in one way or another, it is connected with what can or cannot be seen by everyone, both externally and internally. Today's mindset is different: it can be compared with a two-sided medal. One side of it is the extreme subjectivity that differs significantly from the subjectivity of the sophist Protagoras who was searching for what was useful to the city through a general discussion of individual ideas on the utility. Modern subjectivists, however, do not want to discuss anything: they are only interested in what they can see, and not what others can. But most importantly, they see no point in the discussion itself: that is what brings it together with today’s nihilism. On the contrary, we cannot say that the sophist Gorgias had nothing left after the denial of Arche: words withstood, open to common view again, and they were beautiful and useful. The other side of the modern mindset is the extreme abstractionism when concepts turn out to be very distant and conceptual. However, the modern passion for visualization might potentially prove to be a productive way to a new revelation of the deepest dialectics of the visible and the invisible in both didactics and science. The antique trust in the word is also the belief in the fact that the word can show and indicate to everyone a path to and a hope for the common happiness. Our report discusses this “verbal” pedagogical and political path to the happiness of the polis both in terms of birth and evolution of this path, as well as of its relevance.

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