The Sophists

English 547: History of Rhetoric I

Introduction

In this course we study the origins of rhetoric in ancient Greece and trace its development through the Renaissance. We examine the principal formulations of the art of rhetoric by the Sophists, Plato and Aristotle; and we examine the ways those positions are modified and developed by subsequent authors. We examine such topics as the nature and scope of rhetoric; the instruments and strategies of the art; the traditional "canon" of invention, arrangement, memory, style and delivery; the "ancient quarrel" between rhetoric and philosophy; the relationship between rhetoric and science, art, morality and politics.

Part one: the Sophists (weeks 1-4)

We begin with an examination of the first teachers of rhetoric, the Sophists. We focus primarily on two major "older" Sophists, Gorgias and Protagoras; but we will also discuss the ideas of Prodicus, Hippias, Antiphon, and Thrasymachus, and the author of the "Double Arguments." We discuss the nature of sophistic rhetoric, and the various ways this concept has been articulated by contemporary scholars. Readings:

Week 1. Background; the sophistic movement

Kerferd, The Sophistic Movement
Guthrie, The Sophists;
Lanham, "The Rhetorical Ideal of Life"
Romilly, The Great Sophists in Periclean Athens (selections) Week 2. Protagoras

Readings:

Protagoras, Fragments
Plato, Protagoras
Schiappa, Protagoras and Logos (selections)
Poulakos, "Toward a Sophistic Definition of Rhetoric" Week 3-4. Gorgias.

Readings:

Gorgias, On Not Being; Encomium of Helen; Defense of Palamedes; Epitaphios
Pericles, "Funeral Oration"
Segal, "Gorgias and the Psychology of the Logos"
Pease, "Things Without Honor"
White, Kaironomia (chapter one)
Consigny, The Styles of Gorgias
Miller, "Gorgias and the Heideggerian Kairos"
Robinson, "On Gorgias" Week 5. Isocrates Isocrates, Against the Sophists Paper one (5 pages)

Part two: Plato and Aristotle (Weeks 5-10)

Week 6-8: Plato

Readings:

Plato, Apology; Gorgias; Phaedrus;
Derrida, "Plato's Pharmacy" Weeks 9-10: Aristotle Aristotle, Rhetoric
Consigny, Dialectical, Rhetorical and Aristotelian Rhetoric
Rorty, ed., Essays on Aristotle's Rhetoric (selections) Paper two (5 pages)

Part Three: From Rome to the Renaissance (Weeks 11-15)

Weeks 11-12. Roman Rhetoric

Cicero, Orator (selections)
Hermogenes, On Style (selections)

Week 13. Medieval Rhetoric: Augustine

Reading:

Augustine, Confessions (selections); On Christian Doctrine (selections)

Week 14-15: Renaissance Rhetoric

Reading:

Erasmus, On Copia; In Praise of Folly
Ramus, Arguments in Rhetoric Against Quintilian (selections)
Bacon, The New Organon (selections) Paper three (10 pages)