Laughter and Play in Plato's Gorgias

This paper aims to show that laughter and play are employed as interconnected motifs with a specific function in Plato's Gorgias. I argue that the repeated and seemingly disconnected references to things identified as laughable and to attitudes identified as playful are in fact a systematic attempt to call into question conventional assumptions about the role of philosophy in general and the occasionally playful attitude of Socrates in particular. Socrates - and philosophy - may appear laughable, but the truly laughable ones are the very opponents of philosophy who adopt a mocking attitude towards it.