Ken Casey

This dissertation examines the quarrel between rhetoric and philosophy in fifth century Athens. Focusing upon the ethical dimensions of the struggle, it discusses how the formation of the souls of students as part of rhetorical pedagogy was disputed among rhetoricians and philosophers. It looks at works of Gorgias, Lysias, and Isocrates, for their contributions to the growing art of rhetoric and for their development of the technique of ethos, which raises numerous ethical questions. ;Through a reading of Plato's Gorgias and Phaedrus the dissertation discusses his attack on Gorgias, Lysias and Isocrates. Isocrates fairs better than either Gorgias or Lysias in terms of Plato's ethical critique, though he does not escape entirely. Though Isocrates' pedagogy is credited for being high-minded in its conception of human good, according to Plato it does not practice dialectic and hence grasps human good only on the level of opinion. ;Besides the critical attack upon rhetoricians, Plato outlines a positive program for a reformed rhetorical art in a statement of abstract principles and the characterization of a true orator, in Socrates. The dissertation develops a reading of Plato's works in which these principles stand in a dialectical relation to the character of Socrates as seen in the drama of the dialogue. This dialectic produces a Platonic vision of a new kind of rhetoric. ;Inheriting the Platonic vision of a reformed rhetoric, Aristotle offers several solutions for some of the Platonic paradoxes in rhetoric and solves a problem from the Gorgias by showing how rhetoric can be an art yet lack a specific domain. Aristotle's art lays bare a paradox latent in the Platonic vision itself, namely the tension between the need to speak according to the requirements of virtue and the need to address the non-virtuous desires of an audience. Plato's dialogues, the work concludes, may well show greater dexterity in handling this tension, than does Aristotle's moralizing in his lectures. The tension in both Aristotle and Plato creates some problems; still, even with these problems, their reformed rhetorical art is superior to their predecessors