syllabus
calendar
blackboard
student.email resources

last.updated 5.05.09

Rhetoric and Dialectic

Purpose

To distinguish the scope between rhetoric and dialectic, at least as far as Plato and Artistotle were concerned. We will then think about how these distinctions play out in our current discourse.

Activity–Picturing the Phaedrus

As four groups, you and your group members will be assigned to one of the following questions:

• What is rhetoric according to Plato? How is it different from Aristotle's understanding?
• What are Socrates' critiques of Lycias' speech? his own first speech?
• What was more acceptable, to Socrates', about his own second speech?
• What is Socrates' problem with literacy, or the act of writing?

Each group will visually depict their answers to their assigned questions and pull some specific passages from the text to support your answers. After an hour of work, you will share your responses with and explain them to the class.

Rhetoric vs. Dialectic

As a class, we will address the following questions...

• What questions do you have about these texts?
• What is dialectic? How is it different from rhetoric?
• How do Plato and Aristotle perceive truth's relationship to civic discourse?