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Rescuing the Gorgias from Latour

University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Bruno Latour has been attempting to transform his sociological account of science into an ambitious theory of democracy. In a key early moment in this project, Latour alleges that Plato’s Gorgias introduces an impossibly ratio-nalistic and deeply anti-democratic philosophy which continues to this day to distort our understandings of science and democracy. Latour reckons that if he can successfully refute the Gorgias, then he will have opened up a space in which to authorize his own theory of democracy. I argue that Latour’s refutation of the Gorgias is a failure. Hence, his political theory is, by his own standards, horribly underdetermined. I present another reading of the Gorgias, and consider the dialogue’s possible relevance for current theories of deliberative democracy.

Key Words: Latour • Gorgias • Socrates • rhetoric • elenchus • deliberative democracy

Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Vol. 36, No. 4, 395-422 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0048393106293377


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