Gorgias maintains that the rhetoric is all-powerful. Why?

he art of rhetoric, that is, of speaking well, is the focus of the dialogue. In Greek as well as Roman times, speaking well was considering a skill that could be taught, according to certain rules. We still have this usage in English, when we speak about 'inflammatory rhetoric," that is, a specific use of phrasings, appeals, and kinds of argumentation that are designed to produce a specific effect in the audience. A "rhetorical question" is a question that is not meant to be answered, but rather to heighten the effect of what is being said. ("Are we not men?") Throughout the Gorgias rhetoric is for Socrates a counterpoint to philosophy, because it teaches to flatter, without any consideration for what is good for the audience, and it teaches a kind of expertise without any sense of why it is important, or what ultimate goal it is supposed to achieve. Because rhetoricians are well-paid, and rhetoric was regarded as a useful skill, Socrates' attack on it illuminates by contrast his own conception of philosophy as something beyond use, something valuable in its own right.