The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.
Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, 1979
And so we will begin to trace the end of rhetoric with the beginning of Plato dramatizing the end of Socrates.
Agenda:
- Define Rhetoric [Canvas] [Undergrad class]
- First Day Attendance
- Syllabus [Canvas discussion #2, secondary source presentations, share the wiki site]
- The Grid
- Twitter: #enc6336
- Plato’s “Apology” and Plato’s Republic VII
- Ong, Havelock, Plato, Writing, and Logos
- For next session: “Gorgias” and “Phaedrus”–two conflicting (or, perhaps, complimentary) perspectives on rhetoric. From the Ballif collection, Ballif’s introduction and Richard Enos “Theory, Validity, and the Historiography of Classical Rhetoric” (8-13). Recommended reading: Latour’s Pandora’s Hope on Socrates, Callicles, and the one thing they both fear: democracy
