Logos and Power in Isocrates and Aristotle

187 Pages·2004·2.463 MB·English

by  Ekaterina Haskins

LOGOS AND POWER IN
I SOCRATES AND ARISTOTLE
Studies in Rhetoric/Communication
Thomas W Benson, Series Editor
LOGOS AND POWER IN
!SOCRATES AND ARISTOTLE
EKATERINA V. HASKINS
~►~
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University of South Carolina Press
© 2004 University of South Carolina
Published in Columbia, South Carolina,
by the University of South Carolina Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
08 07 06 05 04 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Haskins, Ekaterina V., 1969-
Logos and power in Isocrates and Aristotle / Ekaterina V. Haskins.
p. cm. - (Studies in rhetoric/communication)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-57003-526-1 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Isocrates-Criticism and interpretation. 2. Speeches, addresses, etc., Greek-History
and criticism. 3. Aristotle. Rhetoric. 4. Rhetoric, Ancient. 5. Oratory, Ancient. I. Title.
II. Series.
PA4218.H37 2004
885'.0l-dc22
2003021065
Chapter one is a revision of the author's article "Rhetoric between Orality and Literacy:
Cultural Memory and Performance in Isocrates and Aristotle," Quarterly Journal of Speech
87 (2001): 158-78, and is included here courtesy of the National Communication Associa
tion. An earlier version of chapter two appeared as "Afimesis between Poetics and Rhetoric:
Performance Culture and Civic Education in Plato, Isocrates, and Aristotle," Rhetoric Soci
ety Quartedy 30 (2000): 7-33, and is adapted here by permission of the Rhetoric Society of
America. Parts of chapter five originally appeared in "Orality, Literacy, and lsocrates' Politi
cal Aesthetics," in Rhetoric, the Pol is, and the Global Village: Selected Papers from the 1998
Thirtieth Anniversa,y Rhetoric Society of America Conference, ed. C. Jan Swearingen and
Dave Pruett. They are included here courtesy of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
In memory of Mich:1c:IC alvin McGee:
CONTENTS
Series Editor's Preface I ix
Acknowledgments I xi
Editions, Translations, and Citation Conventions I xiii
Introduction I 1
One
Between Orality and Literacy I 10
Two
Between Poetics and Rhetoric I 31
Three
Between Kairos and Genre I 57
Four
Between Identification and Persuasion I 80
Five
Between Social Permanence and Social Change I 108
Six
Classical Rhetorics and the Future of Democratic Education I 130
Notes I 137
Bibliography I 149
Index 1163

SERIES EDITOR'S PREFACE
In Logos and Power in Isocrates and Aristotle, Ekaterina V. Haskins compares
and contrasts the rhetorical theories of lsocrates and Aristotle. In rejecting
some earlier readings oflsocra~es that depicted him as a mere practitioner and,
worse, read his work through the lens of Aristotelian rhetorical theory, Has
kins treats both writers as rhetorical theorists. In the process she illuminates
both authors in fresh and interesting readings that seek to promote a "perfor
matively grounded notion of human agency" and a "socially productive ap
proach to rhetoric." Haskins challenges Aristotelian notions of discursive
agency, the role of ethics in deliberation, the scope of traditional rhetorical
genres, and the nature of the audience. Haskins asserts that rhetorical theory
and rhetorical education are necessarily political, and she aligns her own proj
ect with those who ask not "what is rhetoric?" but "what can a rhetoric be?"
Haskins develops her consideration of lsocrates and Aristotle in chapters
on orality/literacy, poetidrhetoric, kairoslgenre, identification/persuasion, and
social change/social permanence. These frames, with lsocrates typically more
on the left and Aristotle more on the right of each pairing, create the ground
for analysis that is both historically informative and theoretically provocative.
THOMAS W. BENSON

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston College for
its generous support of this project through research incentive grants, under
graduate research assistantships, and a faculty fellowship in the fall semester
of 2002. This book began as a doctoral dissertation written at the University of
Iowa in 1998-99. As I was writing the early version of the thesis, the univer
sity housed an interdisciplinary symposium on Isocrates and civic education. I
am grateful to my teachers David Depew and Takis Poulakos, the organizers
of the symposium, for inviting me to participate. The experience of seeing
the same topics debated in real time by scholars from across the humanities
inspired this book's interdisciplinary approach. Although my treatment of
lsocrates and Aristotle bears an imprint of the disciplines of rhetoric and com
munication, many of the issues explored in this book were also raised and illu
minated by philosophers, ancient historians, and classical philologists.
In the process of revising this book, I have benefited from encouragement
and constructive feedback from Barry Blose, my editor at the University of
South Carolina Press, and from two reviewers, whose vigilance and criticisms
have been most valuable.
Last but not least, I owe a hefty debt of gratitude to my graduate mentor,
Michael Calvin McGee, whose intellectual and pedagogical commitment to
rhetoric as a critical practice inspired me to pursue this project in the first
place. Sadly, Michael died not long before the book was completed. I have dedi
cated it to his memory.