Instead of entering political life, he followed Socrates' path and became a philosopher, eventually founding his own school, the Academy. Plato's hostility towards rhetoric may in part be due to the abuses that he witnessed in Athenian public life during the decline of Athens' great experiment with democracy in the 5th century. This hostility can already be observed in the Apology , his version of Socrates' defense speech to the Athenian jury that tried him in 399 BC for impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. If you hear me using the same words in my defense which I have been in the habit of using, and which most of you may have heard in the agora, and at the tables of the money-changers, or anywhere else, I would ask you not to be surprised at this, and not to interrupt me. A contrast is made in this text between the truthfulness and simplicity of Socrates' speech compared with the duplicity and eloquence of his accusers.
Rhetoric here is seen as a tool for falsehood and injustice.
Plato would consistently argue for the superiority of philosophy to rhetoric, since the rhetor's seductive language can often be used to lead men astray. Gorgias is supported by Polus and Callicles. The text begins with an attempt to arrive at a definition of rhetoric. Let me offer you a striking example of this. And if after having become a rhetorician he makes a bad use of his strength and skill, his instructor surely ought not on that account to be held in detestation or banished.