1 / 16

Plato

Plato. Moving beyond the Sophists. Epistemology. Knowledge is innate. We are born with it, and when we understand something, it is because we have remembered it. Equated memory with childbirth, hence his approach is at times thought of as midwifery. Background: Athenian Democracy.

eddyd
Download Presentation

Plato

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Plato • Moving beyond the Sophists

  2. Epistemology • Knowledge is innate. We are born with it, and when we understand something, it is because we have remembered it. • Equated memory with childbirth, hence his approach is at times thought of as midwifery.

  3. Background: Athenian Democracy • Solon, early 6th BCE: introduced first form of popular democracy • Pericles, mid 5th BCE: instituted “pure democracy” and ushered in the Greek “Golden Age” • Decline in the 4th BCE; end Philip &Alexander

  4. Athenian Democracy: make up • Assembly consisted of all males over 18, if their families held citizenship, from 139 demes • Demes were divided into 10 tribes, consisting of inland, town, coastal demes

  5. Demes were divided into 10 tribes, consisting of “thirds”: inland, town, coastal demes • Council of 500 (50 men [over 30] from each tribe; 2-year term, no consecutive terms • Juries: 201, 301, 501 men (who voted by placing gold disks in two jars) • his own words.

  6. In the Greek view, to be a citizen did not merely imply the payment of taxes, and the possession of a vote; it implied a direct and active cooperation in all the functions of civic and military life. • Both the identity of the Sophists and the techniques of the Sophists “threatened” the ethicality of the Athenian system.

  7. Refresher: Sophists Beliefs • Situated Epistemology • Dissoi Logoi (dissonant logic/contrasting arguments) • Kairos • Magic &Eloquence

  8. Magic of rhetorical eloquence acts on bodies so that hearts leap, tears gush forth, and the whole audience share a spiritual experience. Citizens are “heated” to the extent that they cannot engage in rational thought and thus cannot determine what constitutes a virtuous life. Rhetoric essentially functions as a drug on the body.

  9. For Plato - • “Mankind will not get rid of its evils until either the class of those who philosophize in truth and rectitude reach political power or those most powerful in cities, under some divine dispensation, really get to philosophizing.” (Letter Vii)

  10. Plato • Born in 427 (tail end of Golden Age) to an aristocratic family • Student of Socrates, who was charged with and convicted of impiety (399 BCE) • Established the Academy 387 BCE

  11. Sharp Distinction between: • Knowledge, which is certain • Mere true opinion, which is not certain

  12. The Phaedrus • Two parts, reflective of the two modes of rhetorical instruction popular in Athens • Three “models” of speeches on love (one by Lysias that Phaedrus has copied; two by Socrates); • Theoretical/dialectical analysis of rhetoric (definition, parts, and forms of argument) • The “art” of rhetoric (vs. the “knack” of rhetoric)

  13. Distrust of Rhetoric • Feared that the sophists’ “heated” rhetoric encouraged profligacy and extravagance, both vices to the Athenian philosophy of moderation. Body and soul were tightly intertwined in classical Athens. How a youth was trained directly implicated how that youth behaved as a citizen of the polis. • Plato’s disparagement of rhetoric is the threat it poses to the unique identity of the Athenian political system, which linked citizen and polis in intricate ways.

  14. Truth - • The conditions to be fulfilled are these: first, you must know the truth about the subject that you speak or write about: that is to say, you must be able to isolate it in definition, and having so defined it you must next understand how to divide it into kinds, until you reach the limit of division; secondly, you must have a corresponding discernment of the nature of the soul, discover the type of speech appropriate to each nature, and order and arrange your discourse accordingly, addressing a variegated soul in a variegated style that ranges over the whole gamut of tones, and a simple soul in a simple style. All this must be done if you are to become competent within human limits, as a scientific practitioner of speech, whether you propose to expound or to persuade. (227B – C)

  15. Platonic Method • Dialogue -- The form of the dialogue itself subverts the magic of rhetoric by the constant interruption of questions. It also (supposedly) occurs in a one-to-one situation (where one man is persuade, not many men). • Dialectic (a particular kind of dialogue) is an ascent (not as a dissoi logoi) in which the participants begin from a shared proposition or question and move to a shared Truth (which is “recollected,” not discovered)

  16. The Big Four • #1 How does Plato define rhetoric? • #2: What are the consequences of this definition for: • Creators of Texts (rhetors) • “Readers” of Texts (audiences) • Locations of Texts • #3: What is the relationship between language and knowledge (epistemology) in this definition • #4: How might this definition be applied (or not) to contemporary texts?

More Related