Dr. Katherine HeenanEnglish 472Spring 2007Herrick NotesHerrick, James. A History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction. 3rd edition. New York: Allyn and Bacon, 2005Chapter 2 notesThe SophistsThe growing demand for education in 5th century BCE. Greece called into existence a class of teachers known as sophists. They were a professional class rather than a school, and as such they were scattered over Greece and exhibited professional rivalries. - The educational demand was partly for genuine knowledge, but mostly reflected a desire for learning that would lead to political success- were, in fact, the first in Greece to take fees for teaching wisdom. They taught any subject for which there was a popular demand. - Topics included rhetoric, politics, grammar, etymology, history, physics, and mathematics. - Early on they were seen as teachers of virtue in the sense that they taught people to perform their function in the state. - The Greek Sophists were probably the first thinkers to present a systematic art of rhetoric. Sophists were also orators, educators, entertainers and advocates.- Their principal occupations were teaching rhetoric, pleading court cases, and writing speeches for others.- The Sophists taught their students to argue either side of a case. They thus practiced themethod of dialectic. - They professed to teach virtue, which many Greeks doubted could be taught.- The Sophists had a reputation for persuading by clever arguments and stylistic techniques. - Many Greeks viewed them with suspicion. - They did not select their students based on family connections or social status. - Offering rhetorical training strictly on the basis of ability to pay allowed a much wider range of Athenians access to education, and in the process threatened some members ofthe aristocracy. The most popular career of a Greek of ability at the time was politics; hence the sophists largely concentrated on teaching rhetoric. The search for truth was not top priority. - The Sophists developed a view of truth as relative to places and cultures.- They doubted that there could be an absolute truth. - The Sophist Gorgias adhered to a racially skeptical view that even questioned whether knowledge was possible. - Sophists believed in the relative nature of truth, and held that "truth" emerges from the clash of arguments. - Some Sophists built their view of justice on the notion of agreement or convention [nomos]. With the revival of Greek eloquence, from about the beginning of the second century CE., the name "sophist" attained a new distinction. At that time the name was given to the professional orators, who appeared in public with great pomp and delivered declamations either prepared beforehand or improvisedon the spot. Like the earlier sophists, they went generally from place to place, and were overwhelmed with applause and with marks of distinction by their contemporaries, including the Roman Emperors.Sophistic Contributions to Rhetoric - The sophists existed in an oral culture, professed to teach the art of virtue, or excellence. This excellence was political as well as moral, so a great part of the training dealt with the use of the spoken word.- Most of the sophists were non-Athenian, and traveled to earn their living.- although they had some general features in common, they ascribed to no central authority--formed noparticular movement or school- Kairos was a key sophistic concept. It is the full, present context, the speaker, audience and the moment. The sophists taught students to grasp the situation, to manage the situation and turn it to their purposes.- one of the questions of importance was: does excellence in society come from nature or by teaching and trainingCriticisms/Critiques:- The sophists were commonly charged with possessing "cleverness" the ability to turn an argument.- Plato, in particular, criticized them for being argumentative--arguing for the sake of argument and not interested in the search for truth; teaching in an authoritative rhetorical fashion--delivering their speeches but not answering questions; denying absolute value of morality; and for claim to know what they did not know.- Aristotle criticized them for self contradiction and shallowness of thoughtPositive Aspects of SophistsAgainst those negative aspects of being a sophist in the 5th and 4th Century B.C., we should not overlookthe many invaluable, positive aspects and contributions that the sophists accomplished for the further development of the Western philosophies.1. The practice of lawmany sophists appeared as lawyers and served as lawyers. They helped drafting laws, acting legal advisors. Sometimes they even appeared as defense lawyers. They were well acquainted with different legal systems among different civilizations. They contributed to the understanding ofthe nature of law as well.2. The insight of what we’d call cultural anthropology.By traveling widely, almost all sophists were well acquainted with various cultures not and other civilizations than Greek in terms of legal systems, political structures, languages, mores, customs,etc. This awareness of pluralism of the culture made them cultural relativists and those of values.3. linguistic inquiry.They were able to speak several languages and were interested in the inquiry into the grammar and the linguistic structure.4. insight in logic and rhetoric.They were the intellectuals who were interested in logic and contributed to the development of logic and as well as the art of eloquentia (speech) as rhetoric, which were further developed decisively by Aristotle.5. diplomacy.As well exemplified by the role of Gorgias, who came to Athens from Leontini to secure military supports, many sophists were either themselves diplomats or advisors for the diplomat, as they were well acquainted with various cultures and had mastered the art of persuasion.6. politics.Again Gorgias was an example. However, more those who were taught by the sophists and mastered the skills of eloquentia were very successful in obtaining high positions in politics. They were remembered more primarily as politicians than as sophists, however.2Many self-claimed sophists were active as political consultants, advising influential politicians, giving advice, helping making legislation, conceiving political plots.7. educators and education.The sophists were the first professionals who claimed themselves as educators. Education means to mold the youth into a certain trait both in