Plato's Gorgias
One of Plato's most famous works is titled Gorgias, and it is a dialogue between himself and noneother than Gorgias, the Sophist. He uses dialectic here to ask Gorgias questions, in order to gain an absolute truth he already knew. His questions could even be considered rhetorical in this situation, as these types of questions he was asking to form truth. He poses the question in this text attacking the Sophists by asking "Isn't rhetoric corrupt when it is part of th art of getting what one wants by fair means or foul?" (52).
Plato felt that rhetoric was constantly used for personal means and gain, which is why he thought it was bad. He brings this up in his debate with Gorgias, as he condemns them for doing just that. However, you can be the judge, but isn't Plato using rhetoric to call rhetoric bad? Hmm....
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