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Essay 2

When it came to the schools of thought, the Greeks are, unsurprisingly,  among those with the greatest variety of flavor. Standing out among them are the Socratics and the Sophists. Although contemporaries, these two groups had fundamentally different views not only of philosophy, but also of the use of rhetoric. It is upon the second I shall dwell on.

As we can tell by "The Econium of Helen", the prominent Sophist Gorgias viewed the role of a rhetorician not only as a professional endeavor, but also as almost a sport. He gives the speech in defense of Helen as an excuse to show off his prowess as a rhetorician, and refers to the whole affair as his "plaything". In contrast, the Socratics, particularly Plato and Socrates himself, view the view of a rhetorician rather pessimistically. Gorgias shows his ability to talk extensively about an event he knows nothing about, while claiming authority on the subject. Today we call such people politicians.

Socrates is quick to point out the dangers that can arise from such actions, as when he gives the example of a man who, having only a very vague knowledge of what a horse is, gives a speech praising the utility of an ass. Incidentally, this is how politicians are elected. Socrates frequently points out that he is nothing but a fellow thinker, and his  claimed lack of authority actually boosts his ethos. In this respect, he paints Gorgias as a straw-man questioner to generate his own thoughts, a role that the Sophist would have surely resented.

While the  Sophists view rhetoric and those who use it as a high way of life, the Socratics could not disagree more. Although they were divided along philosophic boundaries, their views on speech were perhaps just as divisive.





Essay 4

200 years before Gutenberg invented his printing press, on the faraway Korean Peninsula, metal type printing was invented. This printing press, which had the unique power to duplicate and spread information, ironically suffered from a lack of publicity. Soon the whole world forgot (or never knew) that such a device existed, until the wheel was reinvented in Germany.

This advent showed that if information is not spread both widely and clearly, an otherwise great idea may die. The Greeks considered both aspects--publicity and clarity-- but some valued one over the other. Socrates certainly favored clarity over the spread of his words. His style was based on the dynamic shifts in conversation offered by spoken dialogue. He criticized writing because of the way it freeze-dried ideas, leaving them without the flexibility or depth the spoken word could produce.

Ironically, it was his own student who took these arguments and wrote them down, preserving them for our use. The printed word allowed Socrates' ideas to be discussed by students in a language he never knew and in a country that didn't exist on a continent he had no way of knowing about. Had his ideas been passed down orally, they could be more easily lost or corrupted, gathering on layers of interpretation and misreading. Of course, writing is not immune from these  errors, but its casualties are smaller.

Although the ancient philosophers had to use the mediums of their time, the world is opening new ways of communication at startling speed. Some of these allow us the best of both worlds. If Socrates was alive today, he may come on stage with Ellen DeGeneres, where they would have a discussion on how to find truth. In the comfort  of one-on-one discussion, the conversation would naturally evolve to allow the development of ideas necessary to his teaching methods. Although only part of the interview would air, all who are interested could go online and watch the extended cut.

Socrates' main criticism against writing was that it was merely a copy of a copy. Film, although still under this category, is a much more accurate medium. We have gone from a world where something as huge as the printing press can be forgotten to a world where if a cat plays a keyboard, it can gain worldwide fame. Our age is approaching a solution to the problem of communication.