Training Showmanship. Rhetoric In Greek Medical Education Of The Fifth And Fourth Centuries BC

Abstract

In the fifth and fourth centuries BC, ancient Greek medical practitioners began to use persuasive rhetoric in their practice of medicine. This paper will explore two areas related to rhetoric and medical instruction in ancient Greece--first, the nature of rhetorical instruction given to--or at least expected of--aspiring physicians and second, the effect of rhetoric on the public authority of the physician, as illuminated by the contrasting image of the physician in the Platonic corpus. The first section will examine the Hippocratic Corpus for basic elements of rhetoric with a view to the question: Did the increasing recognition of these techniques by the public actually harm the doctor's public image by creating 'the rhetoric of anti-rhetoric?' The second section focusing on Plato will serve as a contrast to the Hippocratic physician, since Plato purposefully avoids criticizing the medical use of rhetoric while strongly criticizing other uses of rhetoric.