9 October 2024

Rhetoric as Philosophy from Isocrates to the Age of Abelard and Heloise

This seminar examines the ancient and medieval discipline of rhetoric and its practitioners’ claim that it represents a properly philosophical discourse. It does so in terms of a selection of texts drawn from the works of Isocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Abelard and Heloise. In the process, it explores the relationship between affectivity and discursive validity as an implication of the cultural intent of philosophy, i.e., whether historical philosophies are best thought of as a speculative sciences, arts of right living, or whether they call out to be thought of in other terms altogether.



Dr. Bob Sweetman
ICS 220407 W25
ICH5720HS L0101 / L9101*
Remote (Online Synchronous)
Thursdays, 2 - 5pm

(MA, PhD)


*Attention TST students: you have to contact the ICS Registrar to complete your registration.