New in paperback
Speaking for the Polis
Isocrates’ Rhetorical Education
Takis Poulakos
Speaking for the Polis considers Isocrates’ educational program from the perspective
of rhetorical theory and explores its relation to sociopolitical practices. Illumining
Isocrates’ efforts to reformulate sophistic conceptions of rhetoric on the basis of the
intellectual and political debates of his times, Takis Poulakos contends that the father
of humanistic studies and rival educator of Plato crafted a version of rhetoric that gave
the art an important new role in the ethical and political activities of Athens.
Poulakos demonstrates how Isocrates adopted, transformed, and put to new tasks
Protagorean and Gorgianic notions of rhetoric and how he used rhetoric to resolve tensions between political equality and social inequality. Poulakos suggests that Isocrates’
rhetorical endeavors gained stability through narratives of values and shared commitments, credence through seasoned arguments about plausible solutions to political
discord, and weight through the convergence of the speaker’s words and quality of
character.
Studies in Rhetoric/Communication • Thomas W. Benson, series editor
May 2008, 144 pages
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Takis Poulakos is an associate professor of rhetoric at the University of Iowa.
His other books are Greek Classical Rhetorical Theory, Rethinking the History of
Rhetoric, The Philosophy of Communication, and Isocrates and Civic Education.
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