Classical Philosophy and Rhetoric
Classical Philosophy and Rhetoric tests argument, doctrine, and method in Presocratic, Platonic, Aristotelian, and rhetorical texts. Expect close reading of dialogues and rhetorical handbooks.
Core rules
- Socratic elenchus tests beliefs through question and answer, often producing aporia rather than doctrine.
- Plato distinguishes opinion from knowledge; the Forms are intelligible realities, not mental ideas. The cave analogy illustrates education and the Good.
- Aristotle systematizes logic (syllogism), ethics (virtue as mean), and rhetoric (ethos, pathos, logos; invention, arrangement, style, memory, delivery).
Worked example
In Plato's Euthyphro, Socrates asks whether the pious is loved by the gods because it is pious, or pious because it is loved. Reasoning: the dilemma exposes a definitional circularity: divine approval cannot be the sole criterion if piety has an independent nature. A strong answer explains the logic, notes the dialogue's aporetic ending, and avoids attributing every view of a character to Plato.
Traps
- Treating Socrates and Plato as identical.
- Reading a Platonic character as the author's mouthpiece without argument.
- Reducing rhetoric to manipulation; Aristotle treats it as a technē of persuasion.
- Confusing Platonic Forms with modern concepts.
- Ignoring the dramatic context of a dialogue.