Finding Teaching Inspiration from Gorgias: Mathematics Lessons from a Sophist

Abstract

The logos or rational language of the fifth-century B.C.E. teacher, Gorgias, as contained in the fragment On the Nonexistent [3], challenges a reader to understand the relationship between the existent and the nonexistent; yet the text also offers an accessible idea of logos. Inspired by William M. Priestley's approach to the study of logos through ratios [10] and by Ivor Grattan-Guinness's recommendation to broaden the study of historical texts in the history of mathematics and mathematics education, and pursue their significance in a heritage sense [4, 5], this article suggests that this ancient non-mathematics text by Gorgias may inspire and refresh elementary mathematics educators' teaching of visualization and beginning points.