‘Swimming Upside Down in the Wrong Direction’ Plato's Criticism of Sophistic Rhetoric on Technical and Stylistic Grounds
The reform of rhetoric is an integral part of the great program of moral reform undertaken by Plato, and the intensity with which he pursues the subject is a measure of the importance it assumed in his thought. This importance is only partly a result of the enormous and perverse influence wielded by...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
1976
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| In: |
Traditio
Year: 1976, Volume: 32, Pages: 11-29 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The reform of rhetoric is an integral part of the great program of moral reform undertaken by Plato, and the intensity with which he pursues the subject is a measure of the importance it assumed in his thought. This importance is only partly a result of the enormous and perverse influence wielded by rhetoric on politics and the ethics of the individual. The basic reason for Plato's hostility to sophistic rhetoric was that it took the side of appearance in the conflict between appearance and reality which lay behind much of the Socratic–Platonic philosophy. Rhetoric as it was developed by the great teachers of the late fifth century and exercised in the early fourth was concerned, not with knowledge, but with the appearance of knowledge. It did not care for truth, only for what was probable (εἰϰός) or persuasive (πιθανόν). ‘To seem’ (δοϰεĩν, ϕαíνεσθαı) rather than ‘to be’ (εἷναı) was its goal. |
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| ISSN: | 2166-5508 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Traditio
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0362152900018341 |