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last.updated 10.4.05

 

Plato & Dialectic

Purpose

Like his student Aristotle, Plato was very influential in shaping modern practices of rhetoric in the Western world. In spite of being one of Aristotle's teachers, Plato's understanding of rhetoric differs from his prolific pupil's; we will examine some of these differences. We will also closely examine dialectic as an epistemological process, or means to understanding the truth.

Background

Sophists
  • ~ sixth to fifth century BCE
  • "wisdom-bearer"
  • a professional traveling teacher of political importance in ancient Greece who charged fees for their lecturers
  • mistrusted as intellectuals
  • opened up the art of communication to the people, to participate in lawmaking, litigation, and ceremony
  • did not believe that laws and customs were the products of gods or emanated from a natural order; instead they were products of human creation (particularly language)
  • believed that persuasive arguments could be made on both sides of an issue

Socrates

  • 469-399 BCE
  • Did not write anything; difficult to precisely know his thoughts
  • The Socrates of Plato's Dialogues should be read as Plato's construction
  • Socratic Method: use questions and answer to get at essential definitions and  divisions of a topic
  • the interlocutor's inconsistent beliefs develops into positive knowledge

Plato

  • 427-327 BCE
  • Founded the Academy
  • According to some, "invented" rhêtorickê
  • Immediately influenced Cicero & Dionysus
  • Influenced social-epistemic
  • Wrote a series of Dialogues, placing the Sophists' rhetorical theories in contrast to his own; uses Socrates as a major character
  • Returns to a search for the truth through language; uses dialectic (Socratic Method) to arrive at truth
  • Dialectic: the art and practice of inquiry and argumentation

Presentation

Susan, Brittnie, Gilda

Discussion

  • What is dialectic according to Plato?
  • Did anybody find any modern examples of a good dialectic? bad dialectic?
  • According to Plato, what is rhetoric? How does rhetoric differ from dialectic?
  • How does Plato's philosophies about communicating differ from Aristotle?
  • What are Plato's views on the delivery of a text? How does he view oration and writing?
  • In what ways does Lysias's speech comply to or violate Plato's understanding of rhetoric? Socrates's first speech? Socrates's second speech?