{"id":53274,"date":"2016-10-21T17:02:02","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T17:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=53274"},"modified":"2016-10-26T20:18:15","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T20:18:15","slug":"political-rhetoric-in-book-i-truth-or-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=53274","title":{"rendered":"Thucydides Roundtable, Book I: Political Rhetoric in Book I: Truth or Action?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"aristotle\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[by\u00a0Pauline Kaurin]<\/strong><\/p>\n

In reading and discussing Book I with my students, they were fascinated by the role of speeches and the ways in which the speeches seemed to drive action. This seemed counter-intuitive to my students who \u2013 amidst the general election season of 2016 \u2013 saw speeches, political rhetoric more generally as empty and meaningless exercises in candidate ego or manipulation by appeal to fear and other negative emotions.\u00a0 I found this interesting because it demonstrates important differences between how the Greeks viewed and used political rhetoric and how we might view and use it today.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To begin, the crisis caused by the Corcyareans and Corinthians results in a typical assembly being called and then the two sides make their respective cases by giving speeches.\u00a0 (433\/1) The Corcyareans\u00a0 go first, and then the Corinthians make their case, largely by counter-arguing the previous case.\u00a0 Thucydides then describes the actions taken by the Athenians in the aftermath of the speeches, making it clear that deliberation on the speeches (taking into account various factors including a change in public feeling) produced certain actions.<\/p>\n

After the siege of Potidea, we have another round of accusations and fussing, then followed by more speeches, \u201c Last of all the Corinthians came forward, and having let those who preceded them inflame the Spartans, now followed\u2026\u201d\u00a0 (1.67) \u00a0Athens weighs in as well, and then Sparta decides for war, and articulates the reasoning with a speech laying out what we might think of as Just Cause in the Just War Tradition.\u00a0 One of the issues at stake is whether to go to war now, or whether they will be \u201cmen of action\u201d or if the Spartans are stalling.\u00a0 Book I, in fact, concludes with a speech from Perikles where he makes the case that \u2018war is a necessity\u2019 (1.144) and Thucydides notes that the Athenians were persuaded by his speech and voted and acted as he had suggested.<\/p>\n

These highlights are designed to show that there is a pattern here: speeches and rhetoric are embedded within a larger process of reflection and deliberation that is oriented towards making a collective decision and then implementing it into action.\u00a0 This is, I would argue, very characteristic of the classical Greek mind. We find this exact process laid out in Book III of Aristotle\u2019s Nicomachean Ethics,<\/em> and it is reflected in many Platonic dialogues (like Meno, Crito, Phaedo <\/em>and the Republic)<\/em> where the occasion for the conversation about virtue, justice or death is some kind of decision or action that is being contemplated.<\/p>\n

We should also recall the role of the Sophists in Athens and particularly in the development of Western philosophical traditions. They are frequently Socrates\u2019 interlocutors and opponents, and their relativistic worldview is what Plato and Aristotle are positing their accounts of objective knowledge over and against. The Sophists were well known figures, traveling teachers who tutored the young Athenians in the art of rhetoric.\u00a0 Rhetoric was an absolutely critical career skill for the young, free (and often wealthy) men of Athens to master, as their success in life (political and otherwise) was tied to it. \u00a0So rhetoric occupies a critical and prominent space in Greek (and especially Athenian) culture, as it was necessary for the political processes and as Thucydides points out, had a clear impact on what happened and how it happened.<\/p>\n

So these observations are all very interesting but what of it?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The reason that I bring up the role of rhetoric here, especially in the context of the development of the Western philosophical traditions, is that I think my students\u2019 reactions show a stark difference in how we view rhetoric today and Socrates helps us understand why.\u00a0 It is not the case that speech and political rhetoric has no impact in our lives. We might think of the Gettysburg Address, JFK\u2019s Inaugural speech. Reagan\u2019s \u2018Tear Down This Wall\u2019 speech, George Bush’s ‘A Thousand Points of Light’ speech, Barack Obama\u2019s speech on race during the 2012 election or Michelle Obama\u2019s convention speech from this summer.\u00a0 Political rhetoric is alive and well, but I would argue serves a different function now.<\/p>\n

For Plato especially, dialogue contra <\/em>the Sophists, became not about deliberation to make a decision (his dialogues often frustratingly have no closure in that respect) , but as a mode of self-reflection in the pursuit of knowledge and truth. \u00a0\u00a0With the exception of Reagan\u2019s speech, the other speeches that we remember as a part of our political or personal life, those that resonate still, are not speeches that necessarily are aimed at action \u2013 except indirectly.\u00a0 They are speeches that ask us to reflect on our sense of self (both individual and communal), that ask us to think about who we are and we want to be, very often in moral terms.\u00a0 Most of these timeless speeches (judgement reserved for Michelle Obama as it is too soon) still have resonance because they connect to some aspect of the human condition, to our political life both in this moment and across time and are aspirational in some way.\u00a0 They ask or challenge us to look beyond the current moment and decision\/action cycle to something else \u2013 to truth and knowledge.<\/p>\n

As we continue through Thucydides, I ask you to watch for this dynamic in the speeches.\u00a0 What is the intent and effect of the speeches?<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[by\u00a0Pauline Kaurin] In reading and discussing Book I with my students, they were fascinated by the role of speeches and the ways in which the speeches seemed to drive action. This seemed counter-intuitive to my students who \u2013 amidst the general election season of 2016 \u2013 saw speeches, political rhetoric more generally as empty and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1404,1432],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thucydides-roundtable","category-trt-book-i"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53274"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53284,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53274\/revisions\/53284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}