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2. Rhetorik und Philosophie in hellenistischer Zeit und in Rom

  • Wilfried Stroh
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Handbuch Rhetorik und Philosophie
This chapter is in the book Handbuch Rhetorik und Philosophie

Abstract

The article reconstructs the relation between rhetoric and philosophy, beginning from the time of Isocrates who attacked Socratic philosophers and Plato who was the first to deny that rhetoric is an art at all. Both disciplines had a different educational impact and were in competition for students. Initially rhetoric, because of its practical value, was more successful than philosophy whose teachers taught rhetorical theory indeed but gave no practical instruction. So rhetoricians were not in need of answering the invectives they were bombarded with by philosophers, especially by Critolaus in the second century B.C., when Hermagoras had given rhetoric a new theoretical foundation. Cicero, who as a teacher was neither philosopher nor rhetorician but a student of Platonic philosophy and Greek rhetoric as well, was the first to claim that orators should undergo philosophical training and philosophers in turn could profit from rhetorical ability. Nevertheless the clash of the two institutions continued in the imperial era, as is clearly seen in Quintilian, but then, since the benefit to be gained from rhetoric in public had been diminished, rhetoricians now had to fight for students. Virgil first of all, as far as we know, fled from the despised rhetores to the teaching of an Epicurean philosopher.

Abstract

The article reconstructs the relation between rhetoric and philosophy, beginning from the time of Isocrates who attacked Socratic philosophers and Plato who was the first to deny that rhetoric is an art at all. Both disciplines had a different educational impact and were in competition for students. Initially rhetoric, because of its practical value, was more successful than philosophy whose teachers taught rhetorical theory indeed but gave no practical instruction. So rhetoricians were not in need of answering the invectives they were bombarded with by philosophers, especially by Critolaus in the second century B.C., when Hermagoras had given rhetoric a new theoretical foundation. Cicero, who as a teacher was neither philosopher nor rhetorician but a student of Platonic philosophy and Greek rhetoric as well, was the first to claim that orators should undergo philosophical training and philosophers in turn could profit from rhetorical ability. Nevertheless the clash of the two institutions continued in the imperial era, as is clearly seen in Quintilian, but then, since the benefit to be gained from rhetoric in public had been diminished, rhetoricians now had to fight for students. Virgil first of all, as far as we know, fled from the despised rhetores to the teaching of an Epicurean philosopher.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Vorwort der Reihenherausgeber V
  3. Inhaltsverzeichnis VII
  4. Rhetorisches Philosophieren 1
  5. I. Historische Perspektiven: Von der Antike bis zum 19. Jahrhundert
  6. 1. Rhetorik und Philosophie im klassischen Griechenland 23
  7. 2. Rhetorik und Philosophie in hellenistischer Zeit und in Rom 53
  8. 3. Rhetoric and Philosophy in the Middle Ages 81
  9. 4. Rhetorik und Philosophie bei den Renaissancehumanisten 97
  10. 5. Rhetorik und Anti-Rhetorik in der frühneuzeitlichen Philosophie 123
  11. 6. Vico: Rhetorik als Metakritik der neuzeitlichen Erkenntnistheorie 147
  12. 7. Rhetorik und Philosophie bei Kant, im Deutschen Idealismus und in der Romantik 169
  13. 8. Rhetorik und Philosophie in der Frühgeschichte der philosophischen Ästhetik 189
  14. 9. Die Rückkehr der Philosophie zu Rede und Dialog: Vico, Hamann, Herder, Humboldt 217
  15. 10. Nietzsches rhetorische Philosophie der Rhetorik 239
  16. II. Aktualisierungen der Rhetorik im 20. Jahrhundert
  17. 11. Marxism and the Frankfurt School: Rhetoric as Critique 265
  18. 12 Philosophische Hermeneutik: Relektüren der rhetorischen Tradition 281
  19. 13. Pragmatismus und Pragmatik: Rhetorische Spuren in Theorien sprachlichen Handelns 303
  20. 14. Analytische Philosophie: Die andere Seite der Rhetorik 333
  21. 15. Dekonstruktion: Die Rhetorik im philosophischen Text 353
  22. 16. Psychoanalyse: Rhetorik als das Unbewusste der Philosophie 379
  23. 17. Feministische Philosophie und Gendertheorie: Rhetoriken des Körpers 399
  24. 18. Theorien der Metapher: Die Provokation der Philosophie durch das Unbegriffliche 421
  25. III. Philosophische Rhetorik im Kontext
  26. 19. Rhetorik und Argumentation in der Philosophie 451
  27. 20. Rhetorizität und Literarizität der Philosophie 473
  28. 21. Rhetorizität und Medialität 495
  29. 22. Rhetorik, Alterität und Responsivität 513
  30. 23. Rhetorik, Politik und radikale Demokratie 535
  31. 24. Rhetorik, Dissens und Widerstand 563
  32. 25. Rhetorik und Ethik 585
  33. 26. Rhetoric and the Emotions 617
  34. Beiträgerinnen und Beiträger 635
  35. Index 639
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