Notes on Poulakos' 'Sophistic Definition of Rhetoric'

21 February 2013

Poulakos (1994) gives attention to the sophists in the Greek tradition, which, as he claims, has yet to be given proper attention in the “trilogy” (p.55) in the Greek experience of rhetoric; the other two being Plato’s “idealism” and Aristotle’s focus on “development.”

The sophists practiced rhetoric and brought rhetoric to the forefront of Greek thought before rhetoric was a theory to reflect on. Relying on experimentation and poetic texts, sophists, as Poulakos claims, created the following parameters of rhetoric: “rhetoric as art (a techne), style as personal expression, kairos (the opportune moment), to prepon (the appropriate), and to dynaton (the possible)” (p. 56).

The medium of this techne was logos, “whose aim,” suggests Poulakos, “is terpsis (aesthetic pleasure) and pistis (belief).”

He notes that their focus on style has been given plenty of attention, but implies that such attention has often been diminished by the claim this attention to style is about the “non-essential” (p. 57), despites Aristotle’s reflection that “‘the way a thing is said does affect its intelligibility,” or affects its affect to produce desired effects. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. :-)

kairos

Poulakos then shifts his focus on how sophists were attuned to respond to situations and were keenly aware of the temporality of the situation. Accordingly, anything prepared would “betray our insensitivity to and insecurity about all that is contingent in the act of speaking” (p. 60). Well known sophists, such as Gorgias and Hippias value the speaker who “has no need for notes or a text, rehearsal, or presituational practice.” This practice is not philosphical, though. Poulakos claims that it is more “observational,” where “what is said is timely, its timeliness renders it more sensible, more rightful, and ultimately more persuasive” (p. 60). He notes that Protagoras was one of the first to recognize the importance of timeliness. Yet, kairos is not just about speech existing in time, but “constitutes a prompting toward speaking and a criterion of the value of speech” (p. 61).

to prepon

to prepon complements kairos in that it indicates situations have conventions, and Gorgias was one sophist to emphasize the importance and role of an audience in argumentation. to prepon is concerned with the what that is delivered to an audience – what is appropriate – in a situation, which works in tandem with the when of kairos.

This relationship between to prepon and kairos gives rise to the quality of a message, making it “compatible with the audeince and the occasion” (p. 61). In this transaction Poulakos suggesets sophists saw the art of rhetoric as a type of transcaction between rhetor and audience, where the audience appreciates a rhetor who takes these things into account, thereby extending their gratitude and grace to listen to a rhetor’s messages. For a sophist, expecations must be met, by some token of the sense, for persuasion to occur.

more to come…