Gorgias, Sophist and Artist


Book Description

Aristophanes depicted him as a barbaric sycophant, Plato as a shallow opportunist, and Aristotle as an inept stylist, but the Greek teacher of rhetoric Gorgias of Leontini (483-375 BCE) has been again attracting attention from scholars. Consigny (English, Iowa State U.) articulates a coherent account of the enigmatic thinker and writer. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR




Gorgias and the New Sophistic Rhetoric


Book Description

In Gorgias and the New Sophistic Rhetoric, Bruce McComiskey achieves three rhetorical goals: he treats a single sophist's rhetorical technê (art) in the context of the intellectual upheavals of fifth-century bce Greece, thus avoiding the problem of generalizing about a disparate group of individuals; he argues that we must abandon Platonic assumptions regarding the sophists in general and Gorgias in particular, opting instead for a holistic reading of the Gorgianic fragments; and he reexamines the practice of appropriating sophistic doctrines, particularly those of Gorgias, in light of the new interpretation of Gorgianic rhetoric offered in this book. In the first two chapters, McComiskey deals with a misconception based on selective and Platonic readings of the extant fragments: that Gorgias's rhetorical technê involves the deceptive practice of manipulating public opinion. This popular and ultimately misleading interpretation of Gorgianic doctrines has been the basis for many neosophistic appropriations. The final three chapters deal with the nature and scope of neosophistic rhetoric in light of the non-Platonic and holistic interpretation of Gorgianic rhetoric McComiskey postulates in his opening chapters. He concludes by examining the future of communication studies to discover what roles neosophistic doctrines might play in the twenty-first century. McComiskey also provides a selective bibliography of scholarship on sophistic rhetoric and philosophy in English since 1900.




The Birth of Rhetoric


Book Description

What is rhetoric? Is it the capacity to persuade? Or is it 'mere' rhetoric: the ability to get others to do what the speaker wants, regardless of what they want? Robert Wardy uses Gorgias at the centre of this book and the debate.




Gorgias


Book Description

In several of the dialogues of Plato, doubts have arisen among his interpreters as to which of the various subjects discussed in them is the main thesis. The speakers have the freedom of conversation; no severe rules of art restrict them, and sometimes we are inclined to think, with one of the dramatis personae in the Theaetetus, that the digressions have the greater interest. Yet in the most irregular of the dialogues there is also a certain natural growth or unity; the beginning is not forgotten at the end, and numerous allusions and references are interspersed, which form the loose connecting links of the whole. We must not neglect this unity, but neither must we attempt to confine the Platonic dialogue on the Procrustean bed of a single idea. (Compare Introduction to the Phaedrus.)




Plato on the Value of Philosophy


Book Description

This book explores Plato's views on what an 'art of argument' should look like, investigating the relationship between psychology and rhetoric.




Gorgias


Book Description

The Nature of Rhetoric “If it were necessary either to do wrong or to suffer it, I should choose to suffer rather than do it.” - Gorgias, Plato Gorgias is dialogue written by Plato, based on a conversation between Socrates and a small group of sophists at a dinner gathering, where Socrates debates with the sophist seeking the true definition of rhetoric. It is a study of virtue founded upon an inquiry into the nature of rhetoric, art, power, temperance, justice, and good versus evil.




Gorgias: Encomium of Helen


Book Description

The Encomium of Helen is thought to have been the demonstration piece of the Ancient Greek sophist, Presocratic philosopher and rhetorician, Gorgias. In this edition Malcolm MacDowell provides a useful introduction, the Greek text, his own English translation, and commentary.




Plato on the Rhetoric of Philosophers and Sophists


Book Description

Marina McCoy explores Plato's treatment of the rhetoric of philosophers and sophists.




Talks With Socrates About Life


Book Description

Excerpt from Talks With Socrates About Life: Translations From the Gorgias and the Republic of Plato Our information concerning the Scope and nature of the art, one of whose most famous representatives we are about to meet, is chiefly derived from our knowledge of t hists, with whom, Plato tells cmmcommonmidenfified. The very closeness of the relationship between rhetorician and Sophist would seem, it is true, only to have-enhanced the contempt in which each held the other. Callicles, for instance, though figuring here as the host and admirer of Gor gias, speaks of the sophists as men of no account whatever; while the rhetorician Isocrates heaps upon them even fiercer invectives than those contained in the pages of Plato, their arch-enemy, as he is called by Grote. Nor were the Sophists more measured in the contempt they expressed for the art wh no cognizance either of theory or principle, itself to one narrow aim, that of persuasion. Nevertheless. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.




The Gorgias of Plato


Book Description