Plato's Idea of Rhetoric for Contemporary Students: Theory and Composition Assignments

Abstract

'The whole of Western Philosophy, wrote Alfred North Whitehead, consists of nothing but footnotes to Plato. Plato, who is among the most brilliant and artistic writers of antiquity, had a unique theory of rhetoric. From his idea of rhetoric one can derive some of the most intellectually stimulating and most rewarding assignments in the composition or speech instructor's repertoire. Yet the potential of using Platonic theory as a basis of assignments in composition and speech has not been exploited because Plato's idea of rhetoric is either unknown, ignored, or misunderstood. For example, the conventional twentieth-century thought about Plato is that he condemned rhetoric. Why would anyone derive useful assignments from a theory that condemns the very discipline one is teaching and, even if one tried, how could one? But Plato did not condemn rhetoric. What he condemned was the