Rhetoric Background and Issues

Rhetoric—background and issues… Rhetoric was first practiced in Athens in the second half of the fifth century, BC.

Rhetoric—background and issues… The Sophists… Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodious, Hippias, and Thrasymachus… -Little is known about the Sophists from first-hand sources -We know of them mostly through the work of other writers

Rhetoric—background and issues… -Today, the word “sophistry” has a negative connotation. -It suggests lying, cheating, and trickery.

Rhetoric—background and issues… -The Sophists were the first self-styled knowledge professionals. -They charged for their services and claimed to teach the secrets of success. -The Sophists called all accepted values into question, if it served their purposes.

Rhetoric—background and issues… -In other words, the Sophists were relativists. -They were seen as having no respect for the idea of Truth. -Their pragmatism and skepticism, in time, met a backlash.

Rhetoric—background and issues… “The Sophists speak and write to deceive people for their own profit.” Xenophon (Greek historian, student of Socrates)

Rhetoric—background and issues… -Famous playwright Aristophanes wrote “The Clouds,” a play in which he mocks Socrates. -He portrayed Socrates as a thief, fraud, and a sophist.

Rhetoric—background and issues… -Plato was the harshest critic of the Sophists. -He was profoundly opposed to the relativist ideas of the Sophists. -Plato’s interest was Truth (absolute truth)

Rhetoric—background and issues… -In “Gorgias” Plato presents a Socrates in a dialog (Socratic dialog) Socrates—It turns out, then, that rhetoric is an agent of the kind of persuasion which is designed to produce conviction, but not to educate people about right or wrong. Gorgias—Yes. Socrates—A rhetorician, then, isn’t concerned to educate the people assembled in law courts and so on about right and wrong.

Rhetoric—background and issues… ;all he wants to do is persuade them. I mean, I shouldn’t think it possible for him to get so many people to understand such important matters in such a short time. Gorgias—No, that’s right.

Rhetoric—background and issues… -Socrates argues that rhetoric is not an art, but a knack. -He calls it a form of superficial flattery.

Rhetoric—background and issues… Socrates—Moral improvement, rather than gratification and pleasure, is always the reason for my saying anything.

Rhetoric—background and issues… -The Sophists never survived the beating Plato gave them.