Dr. Katherine Heenan
English 472
Spring 2007
Herrick Notes
Herrick, James. A History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction. 3rd edition. New York: Allyn
and Bacon, 2005
Chapter 2 notes
The Sophists
The growing demand for education in 5th century BCE. Greece called into existence a class of teachers
known as sophists. They were a professional class rather than a school, and as such they were scattered
over Greece and exhibited professional rivalries.
 The educational demand was partly for genuine knowledge, but mostly reflected a desire for
learning that would lead to political success
 were, in fact, the first in Greece to take fees for teaching wisdom. They taught any subject for
which there was a popular demand.
 Topics included rhetoric, politics, grammar, etymology, history, physics, and mathematics.
 Early on they were seen as teachers of virtue in the sense that they taught people to perform
their function in the state.
 The Greek Sophists were probably the first thinkers to present a systematic art of
rhetoric. Sophists were also orators, educators, entertainers and advocates.
 Their principal occupations were teaching rhetoric, pleading court cases, and writing
speeches for others.
 The Sophists taught their students to argue either side of a case. They thus practiced the
method of dialectic.
 They professed to teach virtue, which many Greeks doubted could be taught.
 The Sophists had a reputation for persuading by clever arguments and stylistic
techniques.
 Many Greeks viewed them with suspicion.
 They did not select their students based on family connections or social status.
 Offering rhetorical training strictly on the basis of ability to pay allowed a much wider
range of Athenians access to education, and in the process threatened some members of
the aristocracy.
The most popular career of a Greek of ability at the time was politics; hence the sophists largely
concentrated on teaching rhetoric. The search for truth was not top priority.
 The Sophists developed a view of truth as relative to places and cultures.
 They doubted that there could be an absolute truth.
 The Sophist Gorgias adhered to a racially skeptical view that even questioned whether
knowledge was possible.
 Sophists believed in the relative nature of truth, and held that "truth" emerges from the
clash of arguments.
 Some Sophists built their view of justice on the notion of agreement or convention
[nomos].
With the revival of Greek eloquence, from about the beginning of the second century CE., the name
"sophist" attained a new distinction. At that time the name was given to the professional orators, who
appeared in public with great pomp and delivered declamations either prepared beforehand or improvised
on the spot. Like the earlier sophists, they went generally from place to place, and were overwhelmed
with applause and with marks of distinction by their contemporaries, including the Roman Emperors.
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Sophistic Contributions to Rhetoric
 The sophists existed in an oral culture, professed to teach the art of virtue, or excellence. This
excellence was political as well as moral, so a great part of the training dealt with the use of the
spoken word.
 Most of the sophists were non-Athenian, and traveled to earn their living.
 although they had some general features in common, they ascribed to no central authority--formed no
particular movement or school
 Kairos was a key sophistic concept. It is the full, present context, the speaker, audience and the
moment. The sophists taught students to grasp the situation, to manage the situation and turn it to
their purposes.
 one of the questions of importance was: does excellence in society come from nature or by teaching
and training
Criticisms/Critiques:
 The sophists were commonly charged with possessing "cleverness" the ability to turn an
argument.
 Plato, in particular, criticized them for being argumentative--arguing for the sake of argument and
not interested in the search for truth; teaching in an authoritative rhetorical fashion--delivering
their speeches but not answering questions; denying absolute value of morality; and for claim to
know what they did not know.
 Aristotle criticized them for self contradiction and shallowness of thought
Positive Aspects of Sophists
Against those negative aspects of being a sophist in the 5th and 4th Century B.C., we should not overlook
the many invaluable, positive aspects and contributions that the sophists accomplished for the further
development of the Western philosophies.
1. The practice of law
many sophists appeared as lawyers and served as lawyers. They helped drafting laws, acting
legal advisors. Sometimes they even appeared as defense lawyers. They were well acquainted
with different legal systems among different civilizations. They contributed to the understanding of
the nature of law as well.
2. The insight of what we’d call cultural anthropology.
By traveling widely, almost all sophists were well acquainted with various cultures not and other
civilizations than Greek in terms of legal systems, political structures, languages, mores, customs,
etc. This awareness of pluralism of the culture made them cultural relativists and those of values.
3. linguistic inquiry.
They were able to speak several languages and were interested in the inquiry into the grammar
and the linguistic structure.
4. insight in logic and rhetoric.
They were the intellectuals who were interested in logic and contributed to the development of
logic and as well as the art of eloquentia (speech) as rhetoric, which were further developed
decisively by Aristotle.
5. diplomacy.
As well exemplified by the role of Gorgias, who came to Athens from Leontini to secure military
supports, many sophists were either themselves diplomats or advisors for the diplomat, as they
were well acquainted with various cultures and had mastered the art of persuasion.
6. politics.
Again Gorgias was an example. However, more those who were taught by the sophists and
mastered the skills of eloquentia were very successful in obtaining high positions in politics. They
were remembered more primarily as politicians than as sophists, however.
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Many self-claimed sophists were active as political consultants, advising influential politicians,
giving advice, helping making legislation, conceiving political plots.
7. educators and education.
The sophists were the first professionals who claimed themselves as educators. Education
means to mold the youth into a certain trait both in character and skills by giving special training.
No civilization has ever neglected education, for the human beings want to transmit the value of
the existing society to the next generation. However, here the sophists appeared as the first selfclaimed educator for the youth. They claimed that they could make the youth better (superior
politicians and influential persons) by teaching them the art of persuasion (eloquentia). This skills
were far short of fulfilling the task of moral education, but it is very important that they presented
themselves as educators as professionals for the first time.
8. sociology
Sophists were well traveled and well acquainted with various societies. Thus, their knowledge
about the societies, social structures and its conventions was the first, which could claim the
beginning of the sociology.
Sophists We’ll Read or Read About:
Gorgias of Leontini:
 came to Athens from his Sicilian home in 427 B.C. as an ambassador
 set up a school in Athens, teaching such subjects as ethics, civic duty, and public speaking.
 Information about and knowledge of his work is very limited. None of his texts are extant, so all
that we have is quoted material.
 is associated with the "Gorgianic style," a way of speaking that attempts to raise the level of
spoken prose (an approach that would have a great impact in a non-literate, oral culture): "I shall
not relate the story of who won Helen or how." Gorgianic style combines a metrical, lyrical
delivery with complex clausal structures to produce a somewhat sing-song quality: "A passion
that loved conquest and a love of honor that was unconquered" (here we see an example of the
figure chiasmus).
 Gorgias was taken with the sheer power of language. He held this power to be almost magical.
 He also believed that the only reality we have access to results from the influence of words on the
human psyche.
 Gorgias thought that rhetoric worked a kind of magic on its listeners, making them virtually the
slaves of the effective rhetoric.
 Gorgias' view, then, was that rhetoric worked magic on auditors, who were captured by the
orator's spell-casting abilities.
 He apparently thought rhetoric was similar to the incantations healers sometimes used to cure
their patients by controlling their emotions.
 Rhetoric was for Gorgias a sort of verbal or, more to the point, poetic magic capable of exerting
an almost supernatural influence on audiences.
Gorgias’s "On Being" or "On Nature."
One of Gorgias' main contributions to philosophy is his essay "On Nature," which exists only in
paraphrases. It is in this essay that Gorgias expresses his main philosophical ideas:
1. Nothing exists.
2. If anything does exist, it is unknowable.
3. If anything can be known it is incommunicable. nihilistic skepticism. Nothing exists, he claims. Or,
if it did, it would be incomprehensible. Or, if it is incomprehensible, it would be incommunicable.
 He argues that only being exists, and becoming is not at all. Beings must have a beginning either
from being or non-being. If it is from being, then there is no beginning. A beginning from nonbeing is impossible. If something comes from something, then there's no beginning, and
something can't come from nothing. Either way, nothing exists because there is no beginning of
anything.
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His idea of anything in existence being unknowable is "part and parcel" of the whole sophistic
tendency of thought. Gorgias identifies knowledge with sense-perception. Since sense-perception
differs from person to person, and even in the same person, the object itself cannot be known.
The object can only be perceived, but different perceptions will not agree with one another, and
the truth about the object will remain unknown.
Gorgias' third idea is that even if something can be known, it cannot be communicated. This is
also based on the idea of differing perceptions and man's incapability to understand what
someone else is trying to communicate to them. Gorgias believes that the only way to understand
something is to experience it. People cannot truly understand each other because of the problem
of varying perceptions. Since people have different ideas about the same thing, no conceptual
ideas actually exist.
Some scholars see a direct connection between this ontology and epistemology and the
rhetorical principles that follow from it. If nothing exists and we can't know it or share the
knowledge if it did, then the only reality we can know is that which we create through discourse.
However, others suggest that "On Being" may also be read as a sophistic exercise. It may have
been a playful exhibition of Gorgias' cleverness
"Encomium on Helen"
 was a show speech, a way to attract students to his school.
 point of the speech is moot; after all, Helen is long dead.
 text is highly organized in a tight, logical sequence.
 Most importantly, Gorgias claims seductive powers for language.
 Words are seen as having incantatory and narcotic effects on an audience.
 Even the divine is subject to the power of speech.
 Words are like wizardry, and persuasion is akin to abduction by force.
Gorgias's Encomium on Helen is important as
 an example of Sophistic oratory;
 an example of Sophistic pedagogy (in that Gorgias is reported to have taught by example rather
than by precept); and as
 a statement of the Sophistic belief in the power, or force of language to lead
Perhaps an example of why sophists get a bad rap?
 imagine how this would appeal to prospective students, young men eager to hone their
persuasive abilities.
 imagine too how Athenians grew suspicious of the sophists, worrying that they were corrupting
the youth.
Protagoras:
 the first to charge for his services as a teacher of political virtue.
 famous for asserting that "Man is the measure of all things," a relativistic and humanistic position.
A philosophical notion of skepticism, separating forever the Greeks from the mythos. Also
proposed that two-sided arguments will help in that measurement endeavor.
 Thus, sophistry is associated with appearances (as opposed to reality).
 Also known for his concept of dissoi logoi (Gk. "different words"), the idea that there are two
contradictory sides to every issue.
 would have his students practice giving arguments on both sides. These exercises in declamation
were supposed to be so effective as to render the student capable of "making the weaker cause
appear the stronger," another of Protagoras' supposed claims. This theory, and the practice that
grew out of it, became an issue in the debates between Socrates and the sophists, as we will
see.
Terminology
1. arête—virtue personal excellence, the ability to manage one's personal affairs in an
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intelligent manner, and to succeed in public life. Natural leadership ability.
2. chiasmus—rhetorical device that takes its name from the reversing of elements in
parallel clauses, forming an X.
3. endoxa—premises that were widely believed or taken to be highly probable. The
probable premises from which dialectic began.
4. nomos—social custom or convention; rule by agreement among the citizens.
5. psychagogos—a poet, a leader of souls through a kind of incantation
6. techne—a practical art, a science, or a systematic study.
7. dissoi logoi—contradictory arguments or claims.