Midterm Essays

Essay #1: The Irrational

Using various forms of media to understand the “irrationality of life” seems to be a fundamental part of human existence. Sure, the Greeks wrote lengthy narrative poems and put on tragedies, but how many of us today spend at least some of our time sunk into a good book or binge watching Netflix? That alternate reality, so easily fed to us, is comfortable. Everything is nicely explained and wrapped up—whether it has a happy ending or one that leads to a good ol’ cathartic cry. Today, the worlds in between pages of books or television scripts may even develop expansive fan-bases.

Quite frankly, life can be difficult to understand. The Greeks were able to use drama as a medium to help them better understand life. As illustrated in the play “Electra”, people often make irrational choices. By mediating these choices through drama, we are able to experiment with results, understand motive, and resolve emotions. Rhetoricians can turn an irrational act, such as sympathizing with a wannabe murderer, into a rational one: “Oh, poor Electra! She’s so loyal, but has gotten such an awful lot in life!”

Additionally, drama was an ideal place for the Greeks to insert and explain their theology. While the version of the play our class attended was a little bit of a stretch, I imagine in other productions it wouldn’t be hard to imagine the gods giving Electra advice and Orestes instructions. As Alec pointed out in his blog post, this allowed the Greeks to accredit events to the supernatural.

Essay #2: Sophists vs. Socratics

During the 5^th-4^th centuries B.C., both the Socratics and Sophists were major thinkers. Socrates, as the first in the Socratic frame of thought (obviously), was focused on the concept of moral philosophy. All of the Socratic thinkers had a desire to acquire absolute truth through thought and observation, as well as dialectic (and some later Socratics left the oral tradition and emphasized writing). They thought of their career choice as pure, elevated, and moral. On the contrary, the contemporaries of that time, the Sophists, found rhetoric to be a fruitful enterprise. They also enjoyed studying the world, but their desire was to be able to explain the world, and, through this understanding, be able to control it: with rhetoric. If they could master rhetoric, then they could gain a degree of control over the political and social situation. Gorgias, specifically, thought of his abilities as a rhetorician as something he could use for amusement (as illustrated in his speech, “The Encomium of Helen”).

It’s easy to see why Socrates would have disagreed with the Sophist/rhetorician point of view. Notably, Socrates had some strong opinions about writing. He felt that writing itself was derogative to what he hoped to accomplish—it limited memory, didn’t allow for customized learning, didn’t result in complete Kairos, and relegated knowledge to the text on a page.  Of course he didn’t approve of the Sophists, who would write speeches and sell them for others to memorize and perform. In addition, Socrates likely felt that the rhetoricians were dirtying the lofty ideals he had with regard to words, learning, and persuasion.

Gorgias, as a rhetorician himself, probably would not have been pleased with Socrates’ accusations and slight mocking tone. I imagine he would have argued that Socrates was himself limiting learning and the power of words! Gorgias certainly found worth in rhetoric and memorization, and would have used his skills as a rhetorician to attempt to persuade Socrates of his point of view.

 

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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.