Practical platonic rhetoric: A study of the argumentation of theapology

1 March 1977

journal article
research article
Published by Taylor & Francis in Southern Speech Communication Journal

Vol. 42 (2) , 137-150
https://doi.org/10.1080/10417947709372340

Abstract

In the Apology, Plato defends Socrates and the philosophical life with rhetoric despite his objections to rhetoric in the Gorgias and Phaedrus as harmful to philosophy. Critics have disagreed upon the acceptability of the argumentation, some praising, others condemning. By analyzing the argumentation first by Aristotelian and then Platonic criteria we can see why the Apology can be judged sophistical on the one hand and yet, on the other, as making a true contribution to philosophy and serving as an example of the best Platonic rhetoric in practice.

Keywords

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:

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Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 1964
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