Rhetoric Society Quarterly Feb 2006

Strabo, Plutarch, Porphyry and the Transmission and Composition of Aristotle's Rhetoric—a Hunch

Brad McAdon University of Memphis

Abstract

ABSTRACT Scholars who have been writing recently about the unity and composition of Aristotle's Rhetoric make either brief or no mention of the transmission and editorial history of Aristotle's texts. This essay addresses this void by first presenting and discussing Strabo's, Plutarch's, and Porphyry's accounts of the transmission and editorial history of Aristotle's and Theophrastus' texts in conjunction with discussing the list of works that Diogenes Laertius ascribes to both authors. Once the transmission and editorial history is considered, evidence is presented from the Rhetoric that may indicate two important points—the extent to which the text is a compilation of previously independent texts that were ascribed to both Aristotle and Theophrastus and that Andronicus, rather than Aristotle, may be responsible for the text as we have it.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2006-02-25
DOI
10.1080/02773940500403660
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Topics
classical rhetoric rhetorical criticism
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (4)

  1. Jasso (2015)
    Archaic Argument: Aristotle’s Rhetoric and the Problem of First Principles
    Advances in the History of Rhetoric
  2. Walzer et al. (2011)
    Who Wrote the Rhetoric ? A Response to Brad McAdon
    Advances in the History of Rhetoric
  3. Poster (2008)
    Whose Aristotle? Which Aristotelianism? A Historical Prolegomenon to Thomas Far…
    Philosophy & Rhetoric
  4. McAdon (2006)
    The “Special Topics” in theRhetoric: A Reconsideration
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly

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