Methods of sophistry

Bibliographic Data

ID23137214
AuthorsGisela Striker (University of Cambridge, corresponding author)
Year1996
Pages3-21
Publication date1996-06-13
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueEssays on Hellenistic Epistemology and Ethics (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9781139172783.002
OpenAlexW62047931
ISBN9781139172783
LanguageEN
Citations received33

The Sophists of the fifth century B.C. have had a spectacular comeback over the last few decades. One scholar after another, in philosophy as well as in history or in classical literature, has argued that we ought to get away from Plato's devastating campaign to ruin their reputation, and restore them to their rightful place in the history of Greek thought. Perhaps the most complete and balanced picture of their role in the intellectual history of Athens has come from Jacqueline de Romilly. More recendy still, Thomas Cole (1991) has argued, on the basis of what we can find out about their literary activities, that the tradition that makes the Sophists mere rhetoricians as opposed to philosophers is anachronistic in the sense that it imposes an Aristotelian distinction between (rhetorical) form and (argumentative) content upon a period in which such a distinction was not and arguably could not be made. The upshot of these reappraisals tends to be the judgment that the Sophists were both philosophers and rhetoricians, so that their contribution to both fields must be taken seriously. They have a place in both histories, and it is no use confusing the picture by pretending, as Plato does, that they were orators posing as philosophers.

Aesthetics · Anachronism · Argumentative · Art · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Period (music) · Political science · Politics · Rhetorical question · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · Law · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub