Abstract
It is a disciplinary commonplace to identify Plato as the enemy of rhetoric. While it is also common to suggest a more complex role for Plato and his dialogues in contemporary rhetorical studies, this is often treated as a revision of his traditional role. In this article, I question the historicity of the narrative that Plato is the historical enemy of rhetoric. I investigate the role that Plato played in the rhetorical tradition from Demosthenes to Du Bois and compare it to how he is framed in the contemporary discipline - first, in disciplinary histories and second, in contemporary theory. What I find is a distinct disconnect between his traditional treatment and the contemporary construction of his place in the tradition.
- Journal
- Rhetorica
- Published
- 2019-09-01
- DOI
- 10.1353/rht.2019.0001
- CompPile
- Open Access
- Closed
- Topics
- Export
- BibTeX RIS
Citation Context
Cited by in this index (0)
No articles in this index cite this work.
References (0)
No references on file for this article.
Related Articles
-
Philosophy & Rhetoric Oct 2025The Intellectual and Cultural Origins of Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca’s New Rhetoric Project: Commentaries on and Translations of Seven Foundational Articles, 1933–1958 ↗Christopher W. Tindale
-
Philosophy & Rhetoric Apr 2025Peter A. O’Connell
-
Philosophy & Rhetoric Sep 2024Jake Cowan
-
Writing Center Journal 2024Using Content Analysis and Text Mining to Examine the Effects of Asynchronous Online Tutoring on Revision ↗Susan Lang, Clinton Morrison Jr,; Kathleen Brawley
-
Philosophy & Rhetoric Dec 2022Eric King Watts