Dissoi Logoi Research Articles

The conundrum within “caveat lector”: Unraveling the dissoi logoi in the book banning controversy

ABSTRACT Having just passed the 90th anniversary of the book burnings in Nazi Germany, which began May 10, 1933, and the 70th anniversary of the publication of Ray Bradbury’s classic novel Fahrenheit 451, it doesn’t take much imagination or hyperbole to conclude that controversies surrounding book banning in public schools and libraries across the country are very evident today. This essay argues that the book banning issue in the United States can most effectively be understood through dissoi logoi. We examine both sides of the book banning controversy: those entities that advocate for very restricted access to books and other materials, and those that offer a more unfettered approach. First, we look at the historical provenance of book banning. Then we examine Supreme Court, Appellate Court, and District Court opinions related to book banning from 1969 to 2009. In the current analysis, we look specifically at Florida, which has exerted a significant amount of influence in restricting access to books. And, finally, we look at policies that will afford decision-makers the opportunities to make thoughtful and reasonable choices about the books used in school curricula and holdings in public libraries.

Politico-Cultural Exigencies and the Rise of Rhetoric in Classical Greece

Did rhetoric naturally evolve from the inherent power and potential of language, or were specific political and cultural conditions instrumental in driving its development in classical Greece? This paper explores this question by adopting a historical approach to rhetoric and a rhetorical approach to history. It draws on the perspectives of sophists such as Gorgias, the anonymous author of “Dissoi Logoi,” and Isocrates, as well as the rhetorical philosophical orientations of Plato and Aristotle. In conducting this study, I employ a methodological review approach that relies on the scholarship of rhetoric and rhetorical history and critically analyse available sources and the arguments developed in the field. Through this approach, I argue that the emergence of rhetoric in classical times was prompted by several exigent factors, including humanism, democracy, education, literacy, and legal practices. Therefore, theorizing and practicing rhetoric beyond the cultural-political context is inherently partial and incomplete.

PAIRS OF ARGUMENTS (DISSOI LOGOI). PART 2

The paper is a Russian translation of the next six chapters of a curious sophistic text, conventionally called the Pairs of Arguments (Dissoi logoi). Transmitted as an appendix to the works of Sextus Empiricus, this collection of short treaties seeks to show the sophistic (Protagorean) way of argumentation. They address such opposite notions as true and false, sane and insane, wise and foolish, and explore the possibilities of arguing pro and contra a given position.

Antilogy, Dialectic and Dialectic’s Objects in Plato’s Phaedrus

Abstract Plato’s Phaedrus is a dialogue in which rhetoric is not only discussed, but also displayed. The first half of the plot depicts a rhetorical contest in which Socrates himself offers two opposite speeches on love, a kind of dissoi logoi. The current paper tries to explain that the second half of the dialogue offers the necessary keys to understand that for Plato true rhetoric is nothing but dialectic and that beyond the apparent antilogic exercise carried out by Socrates there can be found philosopher’s dialectical practice itself. Last but not least, the article defends that dialectic does not necessarily deal with Forms.

PAIRS OF ARGUMENTS (DISSOI LOGOI)

The speech will touch on first three chapters of a remarkable sofistic text called the Pairs of Arguments (Dissoi logoi). Transmitted as an appendix to the works of Sextus Empiricus, this collection of short trea-ties seeks to show the sophistic (Protagorean) way of argumentation. They address such opposite notions as bad and good, ugly and beautiful, unjust and just, and explore the possibilities of arguing pro and contra a given position.

Pairs of Arguments (Dissoi logoi)

The paper is a Russian translation of the first three chapters of a sophistic text, conventionally called the Pairs of Arguments (Dissoi logoi). Transmitted as an appendix to the works of Sextus Empiricus, this collection of short treaties seeks to show the sophistic (Protagorean) way of argumentation. They address such opposite notions as bad and good, ugly and beautiful, unjust and just, and explore the possibilities of arguing pro and contra a given position.

The Logic of the Self-Refutation Argument in Dissoi Logoi 4.6

Dissoi Logoi 4.6 presents a beautiful self-refutation argument, which I analyse here, offering a different assessment of its relation to self-contradiction and the Liar paradox from the only one available in the literature.

Community-engaged rhetoric

ABSTRACTCommunity-engaged rhetoric enables rhetoricians to discern the ways social issues appear in the nomos, or cultural disposition, of public discourse; to hear the diverse ways humans measure experience about those issues that constitute the dissoi logoi, or competing logics, in public discourse; and to make the weaker case stronger about those issues by reframing them as catalysts for community-engaged partnerships in teaching, scholarship, and service.

The Social False Dilemma: Perpetuating Conflicts between Liberals and Conservatives

This essay addresses the establishment of a social false dilemma in the form of the socially-constructed categories of liberals and conservatives. The illogical positioning of only two options for solving a problem reduces an audience’s ability for developing creative solutions. The dichotomous nature of this political positioning undercuts critical thought through politicians’ usage of entrenched either-or thinking. In turn, the people struggle with a deliberative process that is underscored by an acceptance of a false dilemma. In particular, this essay focuses on an American dichotomous political climate by acknowledging the existence of the dichotomy, the promotion of Dissoi Logoi to avoid the false dilemma, and the repercussions of compromised deliberative functions of democracy.

Prison Paideia

Imprisonment in America has become a form of civil death that blocks the capacity of ordinary people to develop intellectually, creatively, and ethically in ways more harmonious with the polity. Prison paideia in the grain of the sophists reconnects the imprisoned with the polis by challenging all assembled to inquire freely about the nomos that has shaped their perceptions of things; to make the weaker cases about those things, including themselves, stronger; and through dissoi logoi, to discover a culturally diverse aretê animating the demos they could become.

Discursos Duplos (Dissoi Logoi), Tradução Anotada

Resumo: Tradução anotada do tratado anônimo sofístico datado do começo do séc. IV a.C., Dissoi Logoi, ou "Discursos Duplos". A apresentação do texto traz informações básicas sobre transmissão do texto, autoria, datação e uma pequena discussão sobre a caracterização das teses nele presentes. As notas da tradução analisam passagens e conceitos importantes, sugerem questões e inter-relações com outras obras, buscando traçar um panorama possível de interpretação do texto. O tratado, incompleto, compõe-se de nove pequenos capítulos que versam sobre temas importantes durante o período de atuação do movimento sofista e pode ser considerado um exemplar das técnicas retóricas ensinadas por esses pensadores.

English

Since July 2013, our research team has been working on a project that aims at re-introducing rhetorical exercises in Belgian secondary (high) schools and at studying their effects on the pupils. Our hypothesis is that the regular practice of rhetorical exercises, inspired by those practised in Antiquity, could stimulate skills like open-mindedness, flexibility, creativity, empathy, tolerance, and proudness, in a multicultural context. The experimental course is based on the principle of the “dissoi logoi” (twofold arguments), an exercise probably invented by the first Sophists, in order to suspend personal opinion during the exercise and to focus on technique and performance. The results of the experiments are very encouraging. After a couple of lessons the pupils were able to apply rhetorical notions in their compositions; they developed richer argumentations, by taking other points of view into account, and skills that, according to the teachers, improve their everyday life at school.  Key words: Rhetoric, practical reason, education, writing, citizenship.

Paralogical Hyperbole: A “Missing Link” Between Technical and Public Spheres

In this article I describe a type of hyperbole which does not add certainty to a technical claim by removing qualifiers and hedges to make boring science exciting. Rather, paralogical hyperbole overstates while jumping from one line of reasoning to another. For example, citing technical science to argue publicly that the “missing link” has been found is exaggerative, and in a direction illogical, given its starting premise, born of a technical sphere, which actually identifies “missing links” as indefensible claims. From an analysis of the popularization efforts of a few scientists regarding Darwinius Marsillae, a fossilized lemur-like skeleton first described in the technical scientific journal PLoS ONE, I show that paralogical hyperbole can result in discourses that are unnecessarily polarizing regarding scientifically-opposed publics, and can pose threats to broader public understandings of science. I close with a discussion of the rhetorical practices of dissoi logoi and prolepsis as means by which to more consciously experience and represent scientific rhetorics characterized by parlogical hyperbole.

Sur l'unité des Dissoi Logoi 1–5

The fifth chapter of the Dissoi Logoi differs from the previous four chapters on many points. More specifically, the author of the Dissoi Logoi 5 knows the solution to a logical error that the author of the first four chapters seems to ignore, which calls into question the unity of the treatise.

Feigned Soliloquy, Feigned Argument: Hamlet's “To Be or Not to Be” Speech as Sophistic Dissoi Logoi

Feigned Soliloquy, Feigned Argument: Hamlet's “To Be or Not to Be” Speech as Sophistic <i>Dissoi Logoi</i>

IV Justice and Law

The fifth century is the century of nomos, a concept difficult to translate, as it covers several different semantic fields. Usually nomos is rendered as ‘law’, but this is a reductive translation, since the term describes not just positive laws but also traditions, customs, and established practices. Besides, as Aristotle was to observe, the two meanings ‘law’ and ‘tradition’ are closely related: ‘For the law has no power to command obedience except that of habit, which can only be given by time’ (Politics, 1269a20). In short, nomos is anything which is assigned some value, any norm accepted by a group. From the late sixth century onwards, this term acquired a central place in the Greek world, becoming a privileged object of reflection for the sophists. The most significant element is its spread as a technical term for written law, particularly in Athenian democracy. Prior to this, it chiefly referred to customs and traditions. Yet its growing importance is not devoid of problematic aspects. The greater economic and political stability attained through the victorious wars against the Persians led to an increase in travel, cultural exchanges, and trade, which contributed to broadening the perspectives and knowledge of the Greeks. One of the most striking observations they made concerned the wide range of laws and traditions in force in the various cities and states: nomos is indeed a crucial value, as the law and tradition governing the life of a community; but it is in any case relative, as it varies from city to city. The acknowledgement of the relativity of nomos is a central theme in fifth-century literature, as may be inferred from some famous passages by Pindar, Herodotus, and Aeschylus. At first sight, the conclusions reached by these authors would appear to emphasize the capacity of nomos to impose itself: as a verse by Pindar states, nomos ‘is the king of all things’ (fr. 169a Snell-Mähler). Yet the ascertainment of the range of laws and traditions in existence could also lead to moral relativism and to the conclusion that there are no absolute, universal or objective values (Dissoi logoi, 90, 2.18 D.-K. = 40, 2.18 L.-M.).

Performances in Contradiction: Facilitating a Neosophistic Creative Writing Workshop

This article examines the ways that creative writing instructors may willingly (or unintentionally) suppress contradiction and indeterminacy in workshop feedback conversations. By suggesting that contradiction and indeterminacy may be fruitful and dynamic sites to investigate craft practice, aesthetics, and authorship, the essay argues for a reassessment of the way teachers facilitate workshop. In addition to drawing on experience in the classroom, the author suggests that workshop become a site where rhetorical and artistic invention are intermeshed in the sophistic pedagogical tradition of antilogikê and dissoi logoi (rhetorical strategies emphasising contradiction and doubt, rather than certainty). The concept of antilogikê is connected to workshop pedagogy through an analysis of William Covino's Magic, Rhetoric, and Literacy: An Eccentric History of the Composing Imagination. In the book, Covino suggests that generative magic (rather than arresting magic) provides a lens to analyse language and institutional structures. Using the sophistic concept of antilogikê from Andrea Greenbaum's Emancipatory Movements in Composition: The Rhetoric of Possibilities and Covino's analysis of magic, the essay argues that teachers can better encourage the development of apprentice writers by facilitating conversations in the sophistic, rather than the Socratic tradition.

Philosophy

Philosophy

The Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek Tradition and its Many Heirs (review)

Reviewed by: The Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek Tradition and its Many Heirs Markus Asper Paul T. Keyser and Georgia L. Irby-Massie (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek Tradition and its Many Heirs. London and New York: Routledge, 2008. Pp. x, 1062. $360.00. ISBN 978-0-415-34020-5. Following up on their sourcebook Greek Science of the Hellenistic Era (2002), Keyser and Irby-Massie now add the monumental Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists to the increasing body of literature on ancient Mediterranean science. One hundred and twenty-one scholars have contributed 2,043 entries, most of which are about "scientists" or anonymous texts; 276 of which are new (that is, not found in the Real-Encyclopädie or the Neue Pauly). As the editors point out, the Brill's New Pauly will cover about 40 percent of the entries collected here. Although most authors and texts discussed are Greek or Roman/Latin, the reader is also introduced to, among others, Arabic, Armenian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Hebrew, Pahlavi, Sanskrit, and Syriac writers. This is a very important work of reference. The editors have cheerfully opted for an inclusive approach, thus avoiding the anachronisms that easily come with the modern notion of "science." One finds here, beyond medicine, astronomy, mechanics, pharmacology, and mathematics, also alchemy, astrology, geography, ethnology, paradoxography, and physiognomy, as well as sculptors, architects, and grammatikoi if they comment on authors like Aratus or Nicander, and even the occasional theologian. Sometimes, inclusions appear questionable: do artifacts such as the Antikythera device, which adorns the cover, belong in a collection of scientists? Or someone who writes a short poem on a hot spring (Hilarius of Arles)? Or "a good doctor who wrote bad verse—on unspecified topics" (635)? What about mere readers, such as the many Romans drawing on Greek scientific writing? Again, the Encyclopedia includes them: thus we find entries on Ennius, Vergil, Lucan, and Claudian. Of course, the notion of [End Page 113] what is "ancient" cannot be easily defined: most entries discuss people active between the sixth century b.c. and the seventh century a.d., although there are some earlier and many later entries. Even fictional authors are included, like Orpheus and Hermes Trismegistos (though both only as pseudo-authors,), Zarathustra and Pythagoras. There are, however, still some surprise entries: e.g., the Dissoi logoi, Hieron of Soloi, Poseidippos of Pella, Sallust, Satyros of Kallatis. I missed entries on Apollonius of Rhodes and Victoria medica (a gynecologist whom Theodorus Priscianus' Gynaecia mentions, ed., V. Rose [Leipzig 1894] 224 f.). Unavoidably, articles differ widely in style, scope, and engagement. Overall, the Encyclopedia treats less prominent authors more kindly. Many of the entries on fifth- to third-century celebrities of science are disappointing (but then, more detailed information on those authors is easy to come by in other resources). Especially useful, on the other hand, are the entries on the different writings in the Hippocratic corpus, on pharmacy, and alchemy. The discussions of anonymous texts and texts preserved in papyri will also be much appreciated. Owing to the wealth of facts collected, the Encyclopedia provides a kaleidoscopic image of ancient Mediterranean science, fractured in hundreds of snapshots that become synoptic only when used with the more than two hundred pages of indices. This is where the truly encyclopedic spirit of the Encyclopedia shows: a fifty-five-page gazetteer discusses all places and regions named, including political history and secondary literature; a twenty-four-page glossary explains all terms that might be foreign to the reader (see also the even longer index of medicinal plants at the end, in itself a tool much needed). In both cases, references to the entries enable a reverse use. You can now find ancient recipes that contain, say, Butcher's-broom (Ruscus aculeatus), plus a precise discussion of the plant and a full bibliography. Similarly, a fifty-two-page time line lists all individuals included in chronological order, that is, provides the time-equivalent to the gazetteer, enabling geographic–synchronic as well as diachronic study of the material. Moreover, there are most useful lists of entries according to topics, enabling exhaustive topic-centered study. Lists follow that...

Switch-Side Debating Meets Demand-Driven Rhetoric of Science

Abstract U.S. government agencies are collaborating with outside scholars to untangle disparate threads of knotty technoscientific issues, in part by integrating structured debating exercises into institutional decision-making processes such as intelligence assessment and public policy planning. These initiatives drive up demand for rhetoricians with skill and experience in what Protagoras called dissoi logoi—the practice of airing multiple sides of vexing questions for the purpose of stimulating critical thinking. In the contemporary milieu, dissoi logoi receives concrete expression in the tradition of intercollegiate switch-side debating, a form of structured argumentation categorized by some as a cultural technology with weighty ideological baggage. What exactly is that baggage, and how does it implicate plans to improve institutional decision making by drawing from rhetorical theory and expertise? Exploration of how switch-side debating meets demand-driven rhetoric of science not only sheds light on this question, but also contributes to the burgeoning scholarly literature on deliberative democracy, inform argumentation studies, and suggest new avenues of inquiry in rhetorical theory and practice.