Jenks – The Sounds of Silence: Rhetoric and Dialectic in the Refutation of Callicles in Plato’s Gorgias
Citation: Jenks, Rod. “The Sounds of Silence: Rhetoric and Dialectic in the Refutation of Callicles in Plato’s Gorgias.” Philosophy & Rhetoric 40.2 (2007): 201-15. Print. Abstract: The article discusses Socrates’ attempt to refute Callicles in Plato’s “Gorgias.” The author argues that Socrates’ representation of ethics and moral psychology, thought to be an inadequate refute to Callicles’... Read More
Chapter One from Conley – Rhetoric in the European Tradition
Chapter One from: Conley, Thomas. Rhetoric in the European Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Conley begins by highlighting two important details from a scene in Homer’s Odyssey: 1) public discussion – with debate and consensus – was the traditional method for making decisions in ancient Greece; and 2) the ethos of the speaker is instrumental in the resolution of conflict/problems. Conley also highlights how language is... Read More
Muckelbauer – The Future of Invention
Muckelbauer – The Future of Invention Chapter One – “The Problem of Change” Muckelbauer situates his book around one premise: the supposedly distinct scholarly approaches of humanism/postmodernism, foundationalism/anti-foundationalism, universalism/relativism have all hinge on a dialectical notion of change. This means that if change is dialectical, every “new” reading academics perform is merely a negation of an existing reading. .... Read More
Jarratt & Ong – Aspasia: Rhetoric, Gender, and Colonial Ideology
Jarratt & Ong – “Aspasia: Rhetoric, Gender, and Colonial Ideology” In this piece the authors hope to address the first two of Gorgias’ questions from On the Nonexistent with respect to Aspasia: Did Aspasia exist? Can she be known? They’ll do this by considering classical sources and contemporary commentary. Afterwards they will ask the 3rd question from Gorgias’ ontological argument: Is knowledge of Aspasia communicable? ... Read More
Tindale – Reason’s Dark Champions: Constructive Strategies of Sophistic Argument
Tindale, Christopher. Reason’s Dark Champions: Constructive Strategies of Sophistic Argument. South Carolina UP: Columbia. 2010. Part I: Sophistic Argument and the Early Tradition Introduction: At its heart, T.’s work recognizes that the sophists were engaged in a range of argumentative practices. These practices operated in ways that were far different than the ways Aristotle and Plato understood and employed reason. By considering... Read More
