Sophistic Rhetoric and Narrative Psychology: Fielding the Differences

Abstract

In 1970, Michel Foucault delivered his now famous “The Discourse on Language.” In it, he writes,“true discourse prophesied the future, not merely announcing what was going to occur, but contributing to its actual event, carrying men along with it and thus weaving itself into the fabric of fate.... And yet, a century later, the highest truth no longer resided in what discourse was, nor in what it did: it lay in what was said....A division emerged between Hesiod and Plato, separating true discourse from false...henceforth, true discourse was no longer considered precious and desirable, since it had ceased to be discourse linked to the exercise of power. And so the sophists were routed.”