Greece in the 5th Century B.C.

• The birth of the POLIS (city-state).
  • Legislation of Solon and Cleisthenes in the 6^th Century Before Christ.
  • The territory substituted the blood-relationship as basic cell of social organization.
  • Agora
  • Free, public space
  • Public shows
  • Stadium vs. Arena
• The apparition of democracy.
  • Direct democracy
  • Free citizens
  • Public Debate was an essential component of the Greek Democracy.
  • Athenian citizens needed to improve their communication skills.
  • Thus, Rhetoric became the most important part in the higher education of the Athenians.

The sophists

• Foreigners who came to Athens attracted by the cultural splendor of the Greek Democracy.
• Professional teachers who taught Rhetoric the Athenian middle and upper class.
• They were LOGOGRAPHOS (Speech Writers).
• They helped the Athenians to reach the excellence in the management of affairs in their public life.

Why Were They Controversial?

• They were foreigners.
• Moral Relativism.
• Radical Skepticism.
• They charged astronomic fees for their teaching services.

Gorgias of Leontini

(reading: Encomium of Helen)

• 5^th Century B.C.
• The most successful teacher of Rhetoric.
• The role of emotions in persuasion.
• The first author who understood and systematically studied the nature of language.
• Language and Power
• Language and Knowledge (Philosophical Skepticism)

Protagoras

• 485-411 B.C.
• The father of the Moral Relativism.
  • “Of all things the measure is man, of things that are not, that they are not,
    of things that are, that they are.
• ANTILOGIKE
  • His Students had to look for DISSOI LOGOI (contradictory arguments) to defend both sides of any issue.

Diogenes, the Dog

Plato (427-347 B.C.)

Introduction

• Probably the greatest philosopher of all times.
• Against what the sophists taught, Plato believed in a definitive and transcendental truth, and he also believed that we have access to this truth.
• “Noumenal World”.
• The mission of the philosopher is to help us recognize and remember the hidden transcendent truth.
• AKADEMIA
• Plato on Rhetoric
  • Protagoras
  • Gorgias
  • Phaedrus

The Myth of the Cave

Plato’s Gorgias

(Reading: Gorgias)

Selected quotes from “Gorgias”:

• “Then we have now discovered a form of rhetoric addressed to a people composed alike of children, women and men, slaves and free – a form which we cannot much admire, for we describe it as a kind of flattery.”
• “Do the orators seen to you always to speak with an eye to what is best, their sole aim being to render the citizens as perfect as possible by their speeches, or is their impulse also to gratify the citizens, and do they neglect the common good for their personal interest and treat the people like children, attempting only to please them, with no concern whatever such conduct makes them better or worse?”
• “After all, you must become as like as possible to the Athenian people, if you are to be dear to them and wield great power in the city.”