Browsing by Subject "Rhetoric, Ancient."
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Item Force and persuasion in Plato's Republic.(2009-08-25T16:24:18Z) Pearson, Lewis Takashi.; Schultz, Anne-Marie, 1966-; Philosophy.; Baylor University. Dept. of Philosophy.Plato’s Republic begins with an act of force (327b) and ends with an act of persuasion (621c). Between these two bookends, force and persuasion appear well over one hundred more times, permeating the dialogue as recurring themes. Force and persuasion are present in the dialogue primarily as a means for Socrates to provide his interlocutors a proper understanding of human nature, which when fully explicated includes an account of the nature of reality and the good. For the reader, the presence of force and persuasion throughout the dialogue is a constant reminder of its importance as a hermeneutical key for properly interpreting the content and purpose of Socrates’ speech. By focusing on the use and discussion of force and persuasion throughout Plato’s Republic, I argue that Socrates attempts "truly to persuade" his interlocutors "that it is in every way better to be just rather than unjust" (357b), primarily by correcting their misconceptions of human nature. To persuade his interlocutors, Socrates makes visible the invisible soul through the extensive use of images and analogies. I show that one can use Socrates’ definitions of force, persuasion, and wizardry as a hermeneutical key for interpreting all of the major themes, images, and analogies of the Republic.Item Hearing between the lines: the audience as fellow-worker in Luke-Acts and its literary milieu.(2008-04-15T17:54:22Z) Maxwell, Kathy Reiko.; Parsons, Mikeal Carl, 1957-; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.The audience, and its varying levels of participation, is a vital element for the communication of a story. The stories of Jesus Christ as told in the gospels, and of the early Church as found in Acts, rely on the audience members and their participation as do all others. In fact, without audience participation, the narrative fails. Audience-oriented criticism, while named only recently, is an ancient phenomenon as old as story telling itself. This dissertation explores ancient rhetoricians' comments about the audience, as well as the kinds of audience participation expected and the tools used to encourage such participation. In the course of this project, it becomes clear that these tools were used in ancient pagan, Jewish, and Christian literature. Ancient rhetors and authors were quite concerned with engaging the audience—an engaged audience at the very least paid attention and in many cases helped the author create the story, making the audience more inclined toward moral formation. Modern rhetoricians, such as Meir Sternberg and Wolfgang Iser, deal with this phenomenon under the category of literary gap theory. Long before the modern novel and post-Enlightenment story-telling strategies, however, ancient speakers and writers left holes or gaps in their narratives, encouraging the audience to become "fellow-workers" (Mor. 48:14) with the speaker. Identifying ancient roots for such modern theories helps guard against anachronistic methodological missteps, while simultaneously preventing the same theories from being dismissed out of hand. The conclusions reached by this project impact not only the way biblical scholars view the rhetorical abilities of the Evangelists, but also the way in which modern readers "hear" the biblical narrative. The responsibility of audience participation did not end with the ancient audience. The modern audience also bears the responsibility of hearing between the lines, of creating the story with the ancient author. In our particular context as the people of God reading the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, we are all the more likely to be persuaded by the argument we help complete, astonished by the pictures we help draw, and formed by the story we help create.Item Sense and sensibility: the experience of poikilia in archaic and classical greek thought(2016-05) Lather, Amy Kathleen; Beck, Deborah; Dean-Jones, Lesley; LeVen, Pauline; Perlman, Paula; White, StephenThis dissertation comprises a study of ancient aesthetics and sensory experience by focusing on the concept of poikilia in archaic and classical Greek literature. As a term that characterizes a seemingly disparate array of phenomena (ranging from textiles and armor to speech and music), an analysis of the different ways that ancient authors use the terminology of poikilia creates a panoptic perspective on how the perceptual experiences of these different media were thought to converge and diverge. Moreover, this work reveals that close attention to aesthetic terminology provides access to the complex and multivalent character of ancient sensory experience. I demonstrate in this dissertation that poikilia encompasses a diverse but coherent range of aesthetic sensibilities, and that these attitudes reflect the different sensations and affects that were thought to accompany the perception of poikilia. By taking an interdisciplinary approach that combines traditional philological methods with theories drawn from philosophy and the social sciences, my dissertation illuminates the existence of sensory practices (culturally contingent ways of using the senses and interpreting sensory data) that account for the wide range of connotations associated with the term poikilia from the earliest sources onward.Item Where is Socrates going? : The philosophy of conversion in Plato's Euthydemus.(2008-10-02T18:25:36Z) Whittington, Richard T., 1977-; Schultz, Anne-Marie, 1966-; Philosophy.; Baylor University. Dept. of Philosophy.This work examines the aim of Socratic philosophy in Plato's Euthydemus. To understand the conflict that occurs in the dialogue between Socrates and his sophistic rivals, Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, one must evaluate Socrates' overarching goal and its divergence from sophistry. The author argues, however, that a sound analysis of this dialogue must go further and understand Socrates' quarrel with Euthydemus and Dionysodorus as part of a larger quarrel between philosophy and the competitive values of Greek society. The two sophists in this dialogue hardly merit serious, sustained attention. They make no serious arguments and do not seem clever enough to conceal the speciousness of their method. They practice eristic controversy for only one purpose: to refute their interlocutor and move quickly to the next refutation before anyone has time to scrutinize the soundness of their frequently absurd arguments. Indeed, one might wonder why Plato spends his energy trying to discredit this absurdly clownish pair. The author argues that the brothers do not seem terribly threatening or important, but Plato's critique does not stop with them. Rather, he uses them as a caricature of Greek culture and its cult of victory and violence. In opposition to the culture's celebration of competitive values, he articulates a model of philosophical cooperation or (put differently) protreptic dialogue. Instead of aiming to win a dispute, he uses dialogue to convert his interlocutor to philosophy, a goal that diverges radically from sophistry. In this way, Socrates engages his interlocutor an intimate way, leading him patiently toward philosophy. At the same time, Socrates does not speak only to his interlocutor; he offers protreptic dialogue as a public model of discourse and an implicit critique of the city's obsession with competition and victory. Finally, the author contends that one cannot understand Socrates' philosophical goal (namely, exhorting his interlocutor to love wisdom) without understanding his sense of divine mission. In the Euthydemus Socrates begins with the divine sign, which sustains his sense of mission and purpose even when his protreptic dialogues terminate in aporia.