Speaking for the polis
Subtitle: Isocrates' rhetorical education
By: Takis Poulakos.
Series: Studies in rhetoric/communication
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Columbia, S.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 128
Subjects: Isocrates -- Criticism and interpretation.; Speeches, addresses, etc., Greek -- History and criticism.; Education, Greek -- Greece -- Athens.; Community life -- Greece -- Athens.; Rhetoric, Ancient.; Oratory, Ancient.; Athens (Greece) -- Social conditions.
Description: In this reinterpretation of Isocrates' rhetorical achievements, Takis Poulakos evaluates the Greek orator's educational program from the perspective of rhetorical theory and its relation to sociopolitical practices.

Illumining Isocrates' effort to reformulate sophistic conceptions of rhetoric on the basis of the intellectual and political debates of his time, Poulakos contends that the father of humanistic studies and rival educator of Plato crafted a version of rhetoric that gave the art an important new role in the ethical and political activities of Athens.

Explaining the significance of the term "speaking for the polis," which for Isocrates referred to the rhetorical act of creating and sustaining an illusion of ethicopolitical unity that would make deliberation possible, Poulakos discusses Isocrates' application of sophistical rhetoric to politics.

He suggests that Isocrates' rhetoric gained stability through narratives of values and shared commitments, credence through seasoned arguments about plausible solutions to political irresolutions, and weight through the convergence of the speaker's words and quality of character.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [117]-124) and index.
Table of contents: title: Rhetoric and social cohesion : the "hymn to logos"; title: Speaking like a citizen : citizenship, leadership, and community in Nicocles; title: Human agency; title: Eloquence and reflection : antidosis; title: Public deliberation : Panegyricus; title: Educational program.