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  Gorgias (483—375 B.C.E.) Gorgias was a Sicilian philosopher, orator, and rhetorician. He is considered by many scholars to be one of the founders of sophism, a movement traditionally associated with philosophy, that emphasizes the practical application of rhetoric toward civic and political life. The sophists were itinerant teachers who accepted fees in return for instruction in oratory and rhetoric, and many claimed they could teach anything and its opposite (thesis and antithesis). Another aspect of their method was the ability to make the weaker argument the stronger. The term  sophist  in classical Greek was a general appellation denoting a “wise man.” They were important figures in Greece in the 4th and 5th centuries, and their social success was great.  Plato  was the first to use the term  rhêtorikê , while the sophists termed their “art”  logos  . Nevertheless, Gorgias is commonly associated with the development of rhetoric in classical Greece. The democratic process in Athen