The Birth of Rhetoric
Gorgias, Plato and their Successors
Published on 4. August 2005
208 pages
978-1-134-75730-5 (ISBN)
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? This is the rhetoric of ideological manipulation and political seduction. Rhetoric is for some a distinctive mode of communication; for others, whenever someone speaks, rhetoric is present.
This book is devoted to helping readers understand these rival accounts, by showing how it has happened that there are so many conceptions of rhetoric. Any such approach must be rooted in classical antiquity, since our ideas of rhetoric are the product of a complicated historical process starting in ancient Greece. Greek rhetoric was born in bitter controversy. The figure of Gorgias is at the centre of that debate and of this book: he invites us to confront the terrifying, exhilarating possibility that persuasion is just power.
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? This is the rhetoric of ideological manipulation and political seduction. Rhetoric is for some a distinctive mode of communication; for others, whenever someone speaks, rhetoric is present.
This book is devoted to helping readers understand these rival accounts, by showing how it has happened that there are so many conceptions of rhetoric. Any such approach must be rooted in classical antiquity, since our ideas of rhetoric are the product of a complicated historical process starting in ancient Greece. Greek rhetoric was born in bitter controversy. The figure of Gorgias is at the centre of that debate and of this book: he invites us to confront the terrifying, exhilarating possibility that persuasion is just power.
Reviews / Votes
`Wardy gives Gorgias a new hearing. The book addresses and is accessible to, anyone interested in philosophy, literature, and the history of either.' - The Times Higher Education Supplement'Wardy's book, descended from an interdisciplinary course on rhetoric, represents a sophisticated version of the now familiar challenge to simplistic assumptions about the godlike superiority of philosophical over other forms of discourse.' - Christopher Rowe, Phronesis
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
File size
1,73 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-134-75730-5 (9781134757305)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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12/2016
1st Edition
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03/1998
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Content
INTRODUCTION 1 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING: GORGIAS' ON WHAT IS NOT 2 IN PRAISE OF FALLEN WOMEN: GORGIAS' ENCOMIUM OF HELEN 3 IN DEFENCE OF REASON: PLATO'S GORGIAS 4 AFTERLIVES 5 ARISTOTLE'S RHETORIC: MIGHTY IS THE TRUTH AND IT SHALL PREVAIL? EPILOGUE: DOES PHILOSOPHY HAVE A GENDER?
