Plato – Phaedrus
Plato – Phaedrus[1] First, I’ll give a recap of the speech: A. Phaedrus begins the speech, which starts with the notion that the lover is a mad man, that is, insane with desire. This insanity is damaging to the lover and the beloved. 1. This speech of Lysias is cynical at this point, describing a physical, selfish love. 2. The speech itself is badly written, a parody actually, which shows the weakness and corruption of the thought behind it.... 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
Plato. From “Ion”
Plato. From “Ion.” In Burke, Sean. Authorship : From Plato to the Postmodern : A Reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995. Print. Early on in this dialogue Socrates charges Ion with possession, not artistry, in his desire to speak only on the magisterial figure of Homer and not on other poets. So, in a sense, Ion represents (for Socrates in this stage of the argument) invention through divine possession/inspiration. He traces this... Read More
Muckelbauer – Imitation and Invention in Antiquity
Muckelbauer, John. “Imitation and Invention in Antiquity: An Historical-Theoretical Revision.” Rhetorica 21 2 (2003): 61-88. Print. M.’s article creates a new taxonomy (different from the subject or object model) of imitation that complicates the solidification of disciplinary lines between rhetoric, poetics, and philosophy and offers new connections between the classical art of imitation and the classical canon of invention. According... Read More
CCR711 – Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Cape
Plato – Phaedrus[1] First, I’ll give a recap of the speech: A. Phaedrus begins the speech, which starts with the notion that the lover is a mad man, that is, insane with desire. This insanity is damaging to the lover and the beloved. 1. This speech of Lysias is cynical at this point, describing a physical, selfish love. 2. The speech itself is badly written, a parody actually, which shows the weakness and corruption of the thought behind it.... Read More
