
Gorgias and the New Sophistic Rhetoric
Bruce Mccomiskey(Author)
Southern Illinois University Press
3rd Edition
Published on 31. January 2002
Book
Hardback
144 pages
978-0-8093-2397-5 (ISBN)
Description
In Gorgias and the New Sophistic Rhetoric, Bruce McComiskey achieves three rhetorical goals: he treats a single sophist's rhetorical techne (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 techne 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 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.
More details
Series
Edition
3rd ed.
Language
English
Place of publication
Carbondale
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
bibliography
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-8093-2397-5 (9780809323975)
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Schweitzer Classification
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Additional editions

Bruce Mccomiskey
Gorgias and the New Sophistic Rhetoric
E-Book
01/2002
1st Edition
Southern Illinois University Press
€58.99
Available for download
Person
Bruce McComiskey, a Kinneavy Award-winning scholar and the author of Teaching Composition as a Social Process, administers the advanced writing program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.