JILL RUSSELL and TRISHA GREENHALGH
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264843
- eISBN:
- 9780191754050
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264843.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Methodology and Statistics
This chapter describes a study undertaken as part of the UCL Evidence programme to explore how policymakers talk about and reason with evidence. Specifically, researchers were interested in the ...
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This chapter describes a study undertaken as part of the UCL Evidence programme to explore how policymakers talk about and reason with evidence. Specifically, researchers were interested in the micro-processes of deliberation and meaning-making practices of a group of people charged with prioritising health care in an NHS Primary Care Trust in the UK. The chapter describes how the research study brought together ideas from rhetorical theory and methods of discourse analysis to develop an innovative approach to exploring how evidence is constituted at the micro-level of social interaction and communication. It presents empirical data to illuminate the representation and meaning of evidence within one particular policymaking forum, and to highlight contrasting constructions of the policymaking process.Less
This chapter describes a study undertaken as part of the UCL Evidence programme to explore how policymakers talk about and reason with evidence. Specifically, researchers were interested in the micro-processes of deliberation and meaning-making practices of a group of people charged with prioritising health care in an NHS Primary Care Trust in the UK. The chapter describes how the research study brought together ideas from rhetorical theory and methods of discourse analysis to develop an innovative approach to exploring how evidence is constituted at the micro-level of social interaction and communication. It presents empirical data to illuminate the representation and meaning of evidence within one particular policymaking forum, and to highlight contrasting constructions of the policymaking process.
Malcolm Heath
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263235
- eISBN:
- 9780191734328
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263235.003.0017
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The book's concluding study presents the rhetorical education of the fourth century ad, not as the end but as only midway in the literary culture of Hellas, between Homer and the Byzantine emperor ...
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The book's concluding study presents the rhetorical education of the fourth century ad, not as the end but as only midway in the literary culture of Hellas, between Homer and the Byzantine emperor Manuel Palaeologus. The first section of this chapter examines the rhetoric from Homer to Byzantium, from the Iliad to Emperor Manuel II. The second section considers mid-antiquity's pivotal significance, when the Roman empire of Manuel — Greek, Christian and detached from Rome — began to take root. The third section examines a lengthy passage from the scholia to Demosthenes' speech On the False Embassy. The lecturer deploys, in what may seem obsessive detail, the formidably elaborate apparatus of contemporary rhetorical theory. The fourth section notes that his contemporaries and successors saw Menander primarily as a specialist in the kind of minute analysis of forensic and deliberative oratory.Less
The book's concluding study presents the rhetorical education of the fourth century ad, not as the end but as only midway in the literary culture of Hellas, between Homer and the Byzantine emperor Manuel Palaeologus. The first section of this chapter examines the rhetoric from Homer to Byzantium, from the Iliad to Emperor Manuel II. The second section considers mid-antiquity's pivotal significance, when the Roman empire of Manuel — Greek, Christian and detached from Rome — began to take root. The third section examines a lengthy passage from the scholia to Demosthenes' speech On the False Embassy. The lecturer deploys, in what may seem obsessive detail, the formidably elaborate apparatus of contemporary rhetorical theory. The fourth section notes that his contemporaries and successors saw Menander primarily as a specialist in the kind of minute analysis of forensic and deliberative oratory.
G. R. Boys-Stones (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199240050
- eISBN:
- 9780191716850
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199240050.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
According to the theoretical accounts which survive in the rhetorical handbooks of antiquity, allegory is extended metaphor, or an extended series of metaphors; and both allegory and metaphor are ...
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According to the theoretical accounts which survive in the rhetorical handbooks of antiquity, allegory is extended metaphor, or an extended series of metaphors; and both allegory and metaphor are linguistic ‘tropes’: their purpose is essentially ornamental. The distance posited here between meaning on the one hand and the form of its expression on the other has come under decisive attack in the work of 20th century theorists, who have argued for the central role of metaphor in the construction of meaning. But how far in fact do the rhetorical handbooks represent the scope and subtlety of ancient thought on the matter? The papers presented here address this question from a variety of theoretical perspectives; they examine the origin and meaning of the term ‘metaphor’, set ancient against modern theories of language, and theory against practice. The inclusion of papers devoted to allegory in the writing and exegesis of antiquity provides, in the first place, another way of testing the adequacy of ancient rhetorical theory; but it also extends the debate into areas of the literary life of antiquity which have been unjustly sidelined or neglected.Less
According to the theoretical accounts which survive in the rhetorical handbooks of antiquity, allegory is extended metaphor, or an extended series of metaphors; and both allegory and metaphor are linguistic ‘tropes’: their purpose is essentially ornamental. The distance posited here between meaning on the one hand and the form of its expression on the other has come under decisive attack in the work of 20th century theorists, who have argued for the central role of metaphor in the construction of meaning. But how far in fact do the rhetorical handbooks represent the scope and subtlety of ancient thought on the matter? The papers presented here address this question from a variety of theoretical perspectives; they examine the origin and meaning of the term ‘metaphor’, set ancient against modern theories of language, and theory against practice. The inclusion of papers devoted to allegory in the writing and exegesis of antiquity provides, in the first place, another way of testing the adequacy of ancient rhetorical theory; but it also extends the debate into areas of the literary life of antiquity which have been unjustly sidelined or neglected.
Malcolm Heath
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199259205
- eISBN:
- 9780191717932
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199259205.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter considers the nature of the technical literature on rhetorical theory and its relationship to teaching. It begins by addressing problems about the composition and transmission of these ...
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This chapter considers the nature of the technical literature on rhetorical theory and its relationship to teaching. It begins by addressing problems about the composition and transmission of these texts. Evidence from Galen shows that technical literature was composed in a variety of ways and for many different purposes; its public circulation did not always involve formal publication. The diversity of the technical literature on rhetoric confirms this complicated picture. Its composition may have involved dictation, perhaps assisted by shorthand, or reconstruction of lectures from the notes or memories of students. Although the texts were not necessarily addressed to students, they were designed to inform rhetorical training, at least indirectly.Less
This chapter considers the nature of the technical literature on rhetorical theory and its relationship to teaching. It begins by addressing problems about the composition and transmission of these texts. Evidence from Galen shows that technical literature was composed in a variety of ways and for many different purposes; its public circulation did not always involve formal publication. The diversity of the technical literature on rhetoric confirms this complicated picture. Its composition may have involved dictation, perhaps assisted by shorthand, or reconstruction of lectures from the notes or memories of students. Although the texts were not necessarily addressed to students, they were designed to inform rhetorical training, at least indirectly.
John Dugan
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199267804
- eISBN:
- 9780191708152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267804.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter moves from the instances of self-consciously cultural oratorical practice to Cicero's first major work of rhetorical theory, De oratore, which Cicero frames as an archaeology of his ...
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This chapter moves from the instances of self-consciously cultural oratorical practice to Cicero's first major work of rhetorical theory, De oratore, which Cicero frames as an archaeology of his self. It discusses that Cicero uses the aristocratic status of his interlocutors in this dialogue to lend authority to the aestheticizing form of oratory that has characterized his career. It examines Cicero's articulation of a theatrical aesthetic of controlled transgression in which he negotiates the problem of how to evoke feminine grace while maintaining a properly masculine self. It explains that this theatrical aesthetic crystallizes on the human body, both in Cicero's discussion of delivery and in his investigation of figures of speech, where the body and its adornment are the governing metaphors.Less
This chapter moves from the instances of self-consciously cultural oratorical practice to Cicero's first major work of rhetorical theory, De oratore, which Cicero frames as an archaeology of his self. It discusses that Cicero uses the aristocratic status of his interlocutors in this dialogue to lend authority to the aestheticizing form of oratory that has characterized his career. It examines Cicero's articulation of a theatrical aesthetic of controlled transgression in which he negotiates the problem of how to evoke feminine grace while maintaining a properly masculine self. It explains that this theatrical aesthetic crystallizes on the human body, both in Cicero's discussion of delivery and in his investigation of figures of speech, where the body and its adornment are the governing metaphors.
Michael Hawcroft
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159841
- eISBN:
- 9780191673726
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159841.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter discusses and encourages familiarity with rhetorical theory, and even provides a familiar account of this theory. The chapter also serves as a point of reference for the rest of the ...
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This chapter discusses and encourages familiarity with rhetorical theory, and even provides a familiar account of this theory. The chapter also serves as a point of reference for the rest of the book, as it illustrates many of the technical terms from French writers of different periods.Less
This chapter discusses and encourages familiarity with rhetorical theory, and even provides a familiar account of this theory. The chapter also serves as a point of reference for the rest of the book, as it illustrates many of the technical terms from French writers of different periods.
Robin Reames
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226567013
- eISBN:
- 9780226567150
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226567150.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
The common view of language in the West is that it represents the world. Although it is widely recognized that this concept of language originates with Plato, until now, it has not been established ...
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The common view of language in the West is that it represents the world. Although it is widely recognized that this concept of language originates with Plato, until now, it has not been established how Plato invented this now ubiquitous understanding. Seeming and Being in Plato’s Rhetorical Theory illuminates how, over the course of several dialogues (Gorgias, Phaedrus, Protagoras, Theaetetus, Cratylus, Euthydemus, Republic, and Sophist), Plato creates the concept of language-as-statement in order to overpower the political influence of the sophists. This was the original determination that language could be either false or true, where the distinction between false and true rests on a deeper distinction between seeming and being, or appearance and reality—crucial determinations for Plato’s defeat of the sophists’ false speech. This innovation was made possible through common methods of rhetorical theory; namely, the analysis of written texts and the development of theoretical, meta-discursive vocabulary about discourse, or language about language. Through the linguistic analyses offered in the Republic, the Cratylus, and the Sophist, Plato develops his rhetorical taxonomy of mimêsis, onoma, rhêma, and logos—the terminological foundation for his rhetorical theory of the statement, and of statements being either true or false. In demonstrating how Plato invented what Michel Foucault famously called the “sovereignty of the signifier” this book overturns the common assumption that Plato was rhetoric’s most hostile critic. On the contrary, his rhetorical theory makes it possible for him to establish the sovereignty of the signifier over and against the sovereignty of the sophists.Less
The common view of language in the West is that it represents the world. Although it is widely recognized that this concept of language originates with Plato, until now, it has not been established how Plato invented this now ubiquitous understanding. Seeming and Being in Plato’s Rhetorical Theory illuminates how, over the course of several dialogues (Gorgias, Phaedrus, Protagoras, Theaetetus, Cratylus, Euthydemus, Republic, and Sophist), Plato creates the concept of language-as-statement in order to overpower the political influence of the sophists. This was the original determination that language could be either false or true, where the distinction between false and true rests on a deeper distinction between seeming and being, or appearance and reality—crucial determinations for Plato’s defeat of the sophists’ false speech. This innovation was made possible through common methods of rhetorical theory; namely, the analysis of written texts and the development of theoretical, meta-discursive vocabulary about discourse, or language about language. Through the linguistic analyses offered in the Republic, the Cratylus, and the Sophist, Plato develops his rhetorical taxonomy of mimêsis, onoma, rhêma, and logos—the terminological foundation for his rhetorical theory of the statement, and of statements being either true or false. In demonstrating how Plato invented what Michel Foucault famously called the “sovereignty of the signifier” this book overturns the common assumption that Plato was rhetoric’s most hostile critic. On the contrary, his rhetorical theory makes it possible for him to establish the sovereignty of the signifier over and against the sovereignty of the sophists.
John Dugan
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199267804
- eISBN:
- 9780191708152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267804.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter investigates how the Orator canonizes Cicero's own textual eloquence and seeks to control his reception, not as a political agent or speaker in performance, but as a textual entity. It ...
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This chapter investigates how the Orator canonizes Cicero's own textual eloquence and seeks to control his reception, not as a political agent or speaker in performance, but as a textual entity. It discusses that this work, Cicero's final major contribution to rhetorical theory, is an analysis of oratorical style as such: pure eloquentia reduced to its essential properties, and dissected on the fundamental level of the rhythmical cadences that render a sentence's units intelligible parts of a coherent whole. It adds that the periodic style achieves this canonicity by providing a speech with the bodily integrity necessary for Cicero's texts to live part from their original performance: textual corpus replaces bodily corpus. It explains that the Orator presents his speeches as a particular variety of sublimity, one formed within a gingerly negotiation between the Demosthenic and Isocratean rhetorical exemplars.Less
This chapter investigates how the Orator canonizes Cicero's own textual eloquence and seeks to control his reception, not as a political agent or speaker in performance, but as a textual entity. It discusses that this work, Cicero's final major contribution to rhetorical theory, is an analysis of oratorical style as such: pure eloquentia reduced to its essential properties, and dissected on the fundamental level of the rhythmical cadences that render a sentence's units intelligible parts of a coherent whole. It adds that the periodic style achieves this canonicity by providing a speech with the bodily integrity necessary for Cicero's texts to live part from their original performance: textual corpus replaces bodily corpus. It explains that the Orator presents his speeches as a particular variety of sublimity, one formed within a gingerly negotiation between the Demosthenic and Isocratean rhetorical exemplars.
Robin Reames
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226567013
- eISBN:
- 9780226567150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226567150.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
This chapter reflects on the larger significance of the book’s arguments. Plato’s theory of language-as-statement and the split of seeming from being, which culminates in the Sophist, would come to ...
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This chapter reflects on the larger significance of the book’s arguments. Plato’s theory of language-as-statement and the split of seeming from being, which culminates in the Sophist, would come to dominate all theories of language and metaphysics in the West from the late classical to the contemporary era. But Plato’s innovation does not ensure that logos is in fact representational or signifying. By that same token, it also does not ensure that logos was ever detached from its archaic, natural powers in the first place. Rather, language-as-signification creates the mistaken impression that we can disarm lies and falseness by looking to the referent, to what the language represents in the world, and in so doing distinguish seeming from being. It is this mistaken notion that is signification’s greatest danger. Far from disarming the dangerous power of the sophists’ logos, Plato “weaponized” it by convincing us that it is “mere language,” imitative and removed from the world. The apparatus of rhetorical theories designed by Plato as prophylactic against the dangerous force of the sophists’ language, when mistaken for language as such, in its most basic and essential function, leaves the hearer unarmed against the overwhelming, archaic power of speech.Less
This chapter reflects on the larger significance of the book’s arguments. Plato’s theory of language-as-statement and the split of seeming from being, which culminates in the Sophist, would come to dominate all theories of language and metaphysics in the West from the late classical to the contemporary era. But Plato’s innovation does not ensure that logos is in fact representational or signifying. By that same token, it also does not ensure that logos was ever detached from its archaic, natural powers in the first place. Rather, language-as-signification creates the mistaken impression that we can disarm lies and falseness by looking to the referent, to what the language represents in the world, and in so doing distinguish seeming from being. It is this mistaken notion that is signification’s greatest danger. Far from disarming the dangerous power of the sophists’ logos, Plato “weaponized” it by convincing us that it is “mere language,” imitative and removed from the world. The apparatus of rhetorical theories designed by Plato as prophylactic against the dangerous force of the sophists’ language, when mistaken for language as such, in its most basic and essential function, leaves the hearer unarmed against the overwhelming, archaic power of speech.
Robin Reames
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226567013
- eISBN:
- 9780226567150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226567150.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
This chapter summarizes the three major movements in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Plato scholarship that inform the methodology of the book: “orality and literacy” theory to explain the ...
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This chapter summarizes the three major movements in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Plato scholarship that inform the methodology of the book: “orality and literacy” theory to explain the origins of the arts of rhetoric in ancient Greece; Martin Heidegger’s critique of Western metaphysics to underscore the birth of the distinction between seeming and being; and literary-dramatic interpretation to problematize doctrinal readings of the dialogues. Drawing on the work of Eric Havelock, Walter Ong, Thomas Cole, and others, this chapter argues that orality and literacy theory is essential for understanding the early formation of rhetoric, the first discipline devoted to the self-conscious study of language. Furthermore, despite Martin Heidegger’s controversial reading of the Greeks, his examination of the split of seeming from being in the beginning of Western metaphysics is essential for understanding how Plato used rhetoric to create this distinction in order to defeat the sophists. Finally, literary-dramatic readings of the dialogues problematize the general assumption that Plato simply used Socrates as a mouthpiece for his views, including his unequivocally negative views on rhetoric. These three ways of reading Plato preview how the literate arts of rhetoric capacitated Plato’s split of seeming from being and the development of Western metaphysics.Less
This chapter summarizes the three major movements in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Plato scholarship that inform the methodology of the book: “orality and literacy” theory to explain the origins of the arts of rhetoric in ancient Greece; Martin Heidegger’s critique of Western metaphysics to underscore the birth of the distinction between seeming and being; and literary-dramatic interpretation to problematize doctrinal readings of the dialogues. Drawing on the work of Eric Havelock, Walter Ong, Thomas Cole, and others, this chapter argues that orality and literacy theory is essential for understanding the early formation of rhetoric, the first discipline devoted to the self-conscious study of language. Furthermore, despite Martin Heidegger’s controversial reading of the Greeks, his examination of the split of seeming from being in the beginning of Western metaphysics is essential for understanding how Plato used rhetoric to create this distinction in order to defeat the sophists. Finally, literary-dramatic readings of the dialogues problematize the general assumption that Plato simply used Socrates as a mouthpiece for his views, including his unequivocally negative views on rhetoric. These three ways of reading Plato preview how the literate arts of rhetoric capacitated Plato’s split of seeming from being and the development of Western metaphysics.
Sergey Dolgopolski
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823229345
- eISBN:
- 9780823236725
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823229345.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter discusses the context of Talmud in philosophy and rhetorical theory. It shows the periphery that philosophy has allowed for both rhetoric and the Talmud on the map of Western ...
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This chapter discusses the context of Talmud in philosophy and rhetorical theory. It shows the periphery that philosophy has allowed for both rhetoric and the Talmud on the map of Western metaphysics, on which philosophy itself was always at the center. Given the complex and unstable relationships between philosophy and rhetoric on this map, the chapter asks where, in the account of those relationships, the Talmud can stand.Less
This chapter discusses the context of Talmud in philosophy and rhetorical theory. It shows the periphery that philosophy has allowed for both rhetoric and the Talmud on the map of Western metaphysics, on which philosophy itself was always at the center. Given the complex and unstable relationships between philosophy and rhetoric on this map, the chapter asks where, in the account of those relationships, the Talmud can stand.
John Dugan
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199267804
- eISBN:
- 9780191708152
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267804.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This study investigates how Cicero (106-43 BCE) uses his major treatises on rhetorical theory (De oratore, Brutus, and Orator) in order to construct himself as a new entity within Roman cultural ...
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This study investigates how Cicero (106-43 BCE) uses his major treatises on rhetorical theory (De oratore, Brutus, and Orator) in order to construct himself as a new entity within Roman cultural life: a leader who based his authority upon intellectual, oratorical, and literary accomplishments instead of the traditional avenues for prestige such as a distinguished familial pedigree or political or military feats. Eschewing conventional Roman notions of manliness, Cicero constructed a distinctly aesthetized identity that flirts with the questionable domains of the theatre and the feminine, and thus fashioned himself as a ‘new man’.Less
This study investigates how Cicero (106-43 BCE) uses his major treatises on rhetorical theory (De oratore, Brutus, and Orator) in order to construct himself as a new entity within Roman cultural life: a leader who based his authority upon intellectual, oratorical, and literary accomplishments instead of the traditional avenues for prestige such as a distinguished familial pedigree or political or military feats. Eschewing conventional Roman notions of manliness, Cicero constructed a distinctly aesthetized identity that flirts with the questionable domains of the theatre and the feminine, and thus fashioned himself as a ‘new man’.
Robin Reames
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226567013
- eISBN:
- 9780226567150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226567150.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
This chapter illuminates how, in the Sophist dialogue, Plato finally completes his theory of logos by developing his rhetorical theories of onoma and rhêma. Plato’s novel use of these terms defines ...
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This chapter illuminates how, in the Sophist dialogue, Plato finally completes his theory of logos by developing his rhetorical theories of onoma and rhêma. Plato’s novel use of these terms defines them not as they typically but erroneously translated, as noun and verb, but as single word and longer phrase, the combination of which forms a complete logos. Plato formulates his theory of the statement by emphasizing the archaic meaning of the term onoma, which originally referred exclusively to the proper names of persons. By shifting the meaning of onoma from proper names to individual words, and then redefining rhêma as a longer combination of words and logos as a complete combination of phrases, Plato transfers the denominative properties of onoma to all logos. Thus logos denominates things in the material world in the same way that proper names do. By combining this theory of logos with the theory of mimêsis, explicitly referenced in the Sophist, Plato defines false speech as speech that provides a false representation of the things as they seem but not as they are. This birth of logos-as-statement would lay the template for the distinction between seeming and being in Western metaphysics.Less
This chapter illuminates how, in the Sophist dialogue, Plato finally completes his theory of logos by developing his rhetorical theories of onoma and rhêma. Plato’s novel use of these terms defines them not as they typically but erroneously translated, as noun and verb, but as single word and longer phrase, the combination of which forms a complete logos. Plato formulates his theory of the statement by emphasizing the archaic meaning of the term onoma, which originally referred exclusively to the proper names of persons. By shifting the meaning of onoma from proper names to individual words, and then redefining rhêma as a longer combination of words and logos as a complete combination of phrases, Plato transfers the denominative properties of onoma to all logos. Thus logos denominates things in the material world in the same way that proper names do. By combining this theory of logos with the theory of mimêsis, explicitly referenced in the Sophist, Plato defines false speech as speech that provides a false representation of the things as they seem but not as they are. This birth of logos-as-statement would lay the template for the distinction between seeming and being in Western metaphysics.
NEIL MacCORMICK
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199571246
- eISBN:
- 9780191713064
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571246.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter applies some reflections on rhetoric and argumentation in law with a view to mapping the road to a possible conciliation. Topics discussed include the arguable character of law, the rule ...
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This chapter applies some reflections on rhetoric and argumentation in law with a view to mapping the road to a possible conciliation. Topics discussed include the arguable character of law, the rule of law, rhetorical theories, and proceduralist theories.Less
This chapter applies some reflections on rhetoric and argumentation in law with a view to mapping the road to a possible conciliation. Topics discussed include the arguable character of law, the rule of law, rhetorical theories, and proceduralist theories.
James Crosswhite
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226016344
- eISBN:
- 9780226016511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226016511.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This book addresses the conflict between philosophy and rhetoric, but is not a direct attempt to resolve the controversies as they have traditionally been formulated. The aim, rather, is to engage in ...
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This book addresses the conflict between philosophy and rhetoric, but is not a direct attempt to resolve the controversies as they have traditionally been formulated. The aim, rather, is to engage in a reconceptualizing of rhetoric in a way that develops its deeper philosophical dimensions. The chapters in this book inevitably go back and forth across deep rhetoric, a philosophical theory of rhetoric, and rhetorical theory. One movement of the work is to pursue rhetorical theory in order to discover, explore, and activate its neglected philosophical background. Another movement is to pursue deep rhetoric for the purpose of preparing for more philosophically informed rhetorical theory. Rather than attempting to construct a new rhetorical theory, the book attempts to paint a new rhetorical imaginary—a background against which we can do our thinking about rhetoric and rhetorical theory.Less
This book addresses the conflict between philosophy and rhetoric, but is not a direct attempt to resolve the controversies as they have traditionally been formulated. The aim, rather, is to engage in a reconceptualizing of rhetoric in a way that develops its deeper philosophical dimensions. The chapters in this book inevitably go back and forth across deep rhetoric, a philosophical theory of rhetoric, and rhetorical theory. One movement of the work is to pursue rhetorical theory in order to discover, explore, and activate its neglected philosophical background. Another movement is to pursue deep rhetoric for the purpose of preparing for more philosophically informed rhetorical theory. Rather than attempting to construct a new rhetorical theory, the book attempts to paint a new rhetorical imaginary—a background against which we can do our thinking about rhetoric and rhetorical theory.
Robin Reames
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226567013
- eISBN:
- 9780226567150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226567150.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
This chapter reconsiders Plato’s monolithic concept of mimêsis. To develop this concept mimêsis, Plato invents two altogether novel senses of the term, which had previously meant simply “imitation.” ...
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This chapter reconsiders Plato’s monolithic concept of mimêsis. To develop this concept mimêsis, Plato invents two altogether novel senses of the term, which had previously meant simply “imitation.” In Book 3 of the Republic Plato defines mimêsis as a specific kind of poetic speech and in Book 10 he defines it as a kind of falseness. In this way, he has created the two concepts—mimetic language and mimetic falseness—that lay the groundwork for designating false speech for itself. Accordingly, mimêsis is a partial but incomplete theory of logos, a partial but incomplete definition of falsehood, but not yet a complete structure of thought that delineates between true and false, or reality and appearance. This reading detaches Plato’s mimêsis from the metaphysical concepts that are traditionally used to interpret it: Plato’s famous analogies of the sun, the line, and the cave. Rather than interpreting mimêsis through the lenses supplied by these analogies, the chapter proposes that Plato’s theory of mimêsis is only complete once he explicitly links it to his concepts of onoma and rhêma in the Sophist dialogue. Only then does he have a concept of true and false discourse, based on a distinction between seeming and being.Less
This chapter reconsiders Plato’s monolithic concept of mimêsis. To develop this concept mimêsis, Plato invents two altogether novel senses of the term, which had previously meant simply “imitation.” In Book 3 of the Republic Plato defines mimêsis as a specific kind of poetic speech and in Book 10 he defines it as a kind of falseness. In this way, he has created the two concepts—mimetic language and mimetic falseness—that lay the groundwork for designating false speech for itself. Accordingly, mimêsis is a partial but incomplete theory of logos, a partial but incomplete definition of falsehood, but not yet a complete structure of thought that delineates between true and false, or reality and appearance. This reading detaches Plato’s mimêsis from the metaphysical concepts that are traditionally used to interpret it: Plato’s famous analogies of the sun, the line, and the cave. Rather than interpreting mimêsis through the lenses supplied by these analogies, the chapter proposes that Plato’s theory of mimêsis is only complete once he explicitly links it to his concepts of onoma and rhêma in the Sophist dialogue. Only then does he have a concept of true and false discourse, based on a distinction between seeming and being.
Martin Camper
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190677121
- eISBN:
- 9780190677152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190677121.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
Chapter 1 introduces the interpretive stases as a neglected rhetorical method that could be productively employed by scholars to analyze debates over the meaning of texts in virtually any sphere. The ...
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Chapter 1 introduces the interpretive stases as a neglected rhetorical method that could be productively employed by scholars to analyze debates over the meaning of texts in virtually any sphere. The chapter begins with a debate over one of the leaked 2009 “climategate” emails, which seriously damaged the credibility of climatologists, to illustrate the far-reaching consequences of interpretive arguments. A brief sketch is provided of the interpretive stases’ history, from their origins in ancient Greco-Roman legal theory to when they were dropped from rhetorical manuals in the seventeenth century. The chapter explores the relationship between rhetoric and hermeneutics—philosophical, literary, legal, and religious—and argues that no school of hermeneutics offers a general method for analyzing the argumentative push and pull involved in the interpretation of any text. The final part of the chapter outlines the six interpretive stases and discusses how they frame textual interpretation in terms of argument and persuasion.Less
Chapter 1 introduces the interpretive stases as a neglected rhetorical method that could be productively employed by scholars to analyze debates over the meaning of texts in virtually any sphere. The chapter begins with a debate over one of the leaked 2009 “climategate” emails, which seriously damaged the credibility of climatologists, to illustrate the far-reaching consequences of interpretive arguments. A brief sketch is provided of the interpretive stases’ history, from their origins in ancient Greco-Roman legal theory to when they were dropped from rhetorical manuals in the seventeenth century. The chapter explores the relationship between rhetoric and hermeneutics—philosophical, literary, legal, and religious—and argues that no school of hermeneutics offers a general method for analyzing the argumentative push and pull involved in the interpretation of any text. The final part of the chapter outlines the six interpretive stases and discusses how they frame textual interpretation in terms of argument and persuasion.
Joanne Lipson Freed
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501713767
- eISBN:
- 9781501713828
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501713767.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
Beginning with the basic conviction that acts of cross-cultural reading have ethical consequences, Haunting Encounters traces the narrative strategies through which certain works fiction forge ...
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Beginning with the basic conviction that acts of cross-cultural reading have ethical consequences, Haunting Encounters traces the narrative strategies through which certain works fiction forge connections with their readers—in particular, their white, Western readers—across boundaries of difference. Through the formal and aesthetic negotiations they carry out, which both draw readers in and set limits on their imaginative engagements, these works respond in concrete ways to the asymmetries of their circulation and consumption in our contemporary global age. By bringing the tools and methods of rhetorical narrative theory to bear on well-known works of ethnic and postcolonial literature, Haunting Encounters revises existing models of narrative ethics—both those based on empathy, and those grounded in alterity—to account for the particular complications and stakes of staging cross-cultural encounters in and through fiction. Illustrating that both sameness and difference are essential elements of our ethical encounters with fictional texts, Haunting Encounters ultimately advocates for a practice of global, comparative literary analysis that is energized, rather than confounded, by this fundamental tension.Less
Beginning with the basic conviction that acts of cross-cultural reading have ethical consequences, Haunting Encounters traces the narrative strategies through which certain works fiction forge connections with their readers—in particular, their white, Western readers—across boundaries of difference. Through the formal and aesthetic negotiations they carry out, which both draw readers in and set limits on their imaginative engagements, these works respond in concrete ways to the asymmetries of their circulation and consumption in our contemporary global age. By bringing the tools and methods of rhetorical narrative theory to bear on well-known works of ethnic and postcolonial literature, Haunting Encounters revises existing models of narrative ethics—both those based on empathy, and those grounded in alterity—to account for the particular complications and stakes of staging cross-cultural encounters in and through fiction. Illustrating that both sameness and difference are essential elements of our ethical encounters with fictional texts, Haunting Encounters ultimately advocates for a practice of global, comparative literary analysis that is energized, rather than confounded, by this fundamental tension.
Anthony Briggman
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- February 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198792567
- eISBN:
- 9780191834561
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198792567.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Irenaeus has been characterized as incapable of sound reasoning, not a good thinker, naïve, and unable to construct a sophisticated theology. He was said to have little to no interest in ...
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Irenaeus has been characterized as incapable of sound reasoning, not a good thinker, naïve, and unable to construct a sophisticated theology. He was said to have little to no interest in philosophical reasoning and to strictly oppose theological speculation. Each of these narratives opposes the study of Irenaeus’ understanding of God and its bearing on the divine economy. This chapter consists of three essays that challenge these narratives, thereby establishing an understanding of Irenaeus and his theological method that sustains the chapters that follow. The first essay challenges the narrative that Irenaeus was unintelligent or incompetent by demonstrating his knowledge of literary and rhetorical theory and, thus, arguing he enjoyed a thorough rhetorical education. The second argues that he is not strictly opposed to theological speculation. The third shows that he recognizes a natural knowledge of God which, in turn, establishes a basis for the theological appropriation of philosophical insights.Less
Irenaeus has been characterized as incapable of sound reasoning, not a good thinker, naïve, and unable to construct a sophisticated theology. He was said to have little to no interest in philosophical reasoning and to strictly oppose theological speculation. Each of these narratives opposes the study of Irenaeus’ understanding of God and its bearing on the divine economy. This chapter consists of three essays that challenge these narratives, thereby establishing an understanding of Irenaeus and his theological method that sustains the chapters that follow. The first essay challenges the narrative that Irenaeus was unintelligent or incompetent by demonstrating his knowledge of literary and rhetorical theory and, thus, arguing he enjoyed a thorough rhetorical education. The second argues that he is not strictly opposed to theological speculation. The third shows that he recognizes a natural knowledge of God which, in turn, establishes a basis for the theological appropriation of philosophical insights.
Gunther Martin
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199654314
- eISBN:
- 9780191751370
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654314.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter maintains that the two Idylls under examination (11 and 17) suggest the ubiquitousness of rhetorical culture and Theocritus' mastery of rhetorical art. They presuppose knowledge of ...
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This chapter maintains that the two Idylls under examination (11 and 17) suggest the ubiquitousness of rhetorical culture and Theocritus' mastery of rhetorical art. They presuppose knowledge of rhetorical theory. Nevertheless, the rhetorical strategies employed suggest that the poet goes beyond the ‘dictates’ of contemporary theory. These two Idylls toy with the expectations of the audience by exposing the failures of mere adherence to rhetorical precepts. According to Theocritus, therefore, a formalistic oratorical approach is ultimately bound to fail: it will not persuade.Less
This chapter maintains that the two Idylls under examination (11 and 17) suggest the ubiquitousness of rhetorical culture and Theocritus' mastery of rhetorical art. They presuppose knowledge of rhetorical theory. Nevertheless, the rhetorical strategies employed suggest that the poet goes beyond the ‘dictates’ of contemporary theory. These two Idylls toy with the expectations of the audience by exposing the failures of mere adherence to rhetorical precepts. According to Theocritus, therefore, a formalistic oratorical approach is ultimately bound to fail: it will not persuade.
