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Sophists. Protagoras : Man is the measure of all things. Gorgias : Nothing exits, and if it did, no one could know it, and if they knew it, they could not communicate it. Aristotle on Rhetoric. Plato on Writing.
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Sophists • Protagoras: Man is the measure of all things. • Gorgias: Nothing exits, and if it did, no one could know it, and if they knew it, they could not communicate it.
Plato on Writing Those who think they can leave written instructions for an art, as well as those who accept them, thinking that writing can yield results that are clear or certain, must be quite naïve and truly ignorant… otherwise, how could they possibly think that words that have been written down can do more than remind those who already know what the writing is about? (Plato, Phaedrus, 275d)
Aristotle on Rhetoric • That rhetoric, therefore, does not belong to a single defined genus of subject but is like dialectic and that it is useful is clear – and that its function is not to persuade but to see the available means of persuasion in each case, as is true also in all the other arts; for neither is it the function of medicine to create health but to promote this as much as possible; for its is nevertheless possible to treat well those who cannot recover health. (1.1.14)
Aristotle on Rhetoric Aristotle agreed with Plato that • rhetoric is not a science • that is has no specific subject matter • that it produces belief and not truth • BUT that it is useful nonetheless
Aristotle on Rhetoric • Rhetoric is the counterpart of dialectic. Both alike are concerned with such things as come, more or less, within the general ken of all men and belong to no definite science. Accordingly all men make use, more or less, of both; for to a certain extent all men attempt to discuss statements and to maintain them, to defend themselves and to attack others. (1354a).
Syllogism All people are mortal Socrates is a person Socrates is mortal Enthymeme All people are mortal Socrates is mortal