Underlying much of the dialogue is the issue of how one can best define the concept of a techne, which can be variously translated as an “art,” a “craft,” or a “skill.” A techne—or “art,” as it is commonly translated—is understood by Socrates as an activity that is characterized by knowledge (episteme) rather than belief (doxa). In other words, a true art—such as legislation, physical training, and medicine—must be based on a rational theory. Professions or endeavors that are not based on a rational theory include sophistry, beauty culture, and cookery and are characterized by Socrates as “knacks” based on experience. For Socrates, oratory is a “knack” and not an “art.”

Elenchus comes from the Greek word meaning “to question” or “to examine.” It is Socrates’s method of using a question-and-answer format to arrive at philosophical conclusions. In Plato’s Gorgias, as in many of his other dialogues, Socrates’s use of this method often annoys or angers his interlocutors. This is because Socrates’s elenchus uses questions to draw assertions from his interlocutors that often lead them to propositions that contradict their earlier assertions. There is, however, a flaw in the elenchus that becomes clear in the Gorgias: Exposing inconsistencies in the beliefs of one’s interlocutors does not necessarily mean that one’s own beliefs are true.