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From the Homeric poems down to the Gospel of St John, the Greeks as a people were fascinated by the power of the word. This module will survey how the rhetorical culture of the Athenian democracy stimulated some of the central ideas of the Classical Greek philosophers. In the first half of the semester, after looking briefly at the Homeric background, we will study the Sophists and their influence on Athenian oratory, as reflected in contemporary historical and dramatic texts, notably Aristophanes’ Clouds. The second half of the module turns to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and how each of these criticized and revised the Sophistic legacy, eventually formulating new ideals of logical precision and scientific objectivity that would have lasting influence.
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