Post Number 2
I found it interesting how they all touched on how nothing is truly true. Gorgias believes that all information we gain is provisional, meaning that it is only what we know it to be for a certain amount of time. Dissoi Logoi explains how a statement can be true but false at the same time. Karios discusses how the world is in a constant state of change and how knowledge consists of many contradictions and isn't true.
Gorgias also brings up how we take opinion to be the counselor of the soul and how this is unwise. I find it interesting that we touched upon this earlier in class and how our opinions can be tied to our identity. He says that our opinions are insecure and I think that is a good point because our opinions can be easily swayed which would affect our identity, and if rhetors are attempting to change our opinion and our opinion is tied with our identity, are they in a way attempting and sometimes successfully changing our identities?
The idea that a statement can be both true and false really confused me. I read it a few times and I still don't know if I fully understand what it means to have everything be both true and false. But what I think it means is that I can say that I own a cat. The statement is that I own a cat and because I said it, the statement is false. However, if my neighbor were to speak the same statement it would be true. In this way the statement I own a cat is both true and false. When the idea that everything can be both true and false came to the idea of existence is where I really got confused. How can we both exist and not exist? Does he mean that we don't exist because some people don't know of us and thus in their world we do not exist?
Everything we learn always comes with a "but". Language is a great example of contradictions because there are just so many rules that have their own set of contradictions, "I before E, EXCEPT after C". The world is constantly changing and what is good today may be bad in a year and what is bad today may become good. This makes it important to argue a point while it is relevant because it will not remain relevant for a very long time. People and things change therefore what captures peoples attention changes frequently and in order for a rhetor to make a difference they must act on a situation while it remains important and relevant to the people they are looking to attract.
