Philosophical Reflection - Lectures & Texts
Lecture 1 - Philosophers and Sophists
● Communication: sharing information via spoken language, written language or
another medium
● Language & communication a problem in ancient culture/philosophy
● Sophists (already have wisdom): group of travelling teachers, willing to teach you
● Teaching: concerned with rhetoric, speaking well = convincing people
● Philosophers (love wisdom): dispute with sophists
“Why would I want to persuade someone with my opinion, when I don’t know the
truth behind the thing?” (philosopher)
● Sophists claim they can teach you how to convince other people: seem to claim to
convince people with ALL topics
○ philosopher suspicious: says you cannot know everything about all topics
● Chose different form of communication: for Rhetorics it is speech (philosophers say
this form can misguide us, not able to address questions)
● Plato: preferred form is dialogue = give opinion & ask questions
● Good liar: should be good in Rhetorics, persuade someone about something that is
not true without other seeing it is not true
○ rhetoric: art of persuasion & speaking well
○ language a tool to misguide us
● Philosophers are confronted with: can we find the truth of our reality = come to
knowledge
○ language ambiguous: tool to find truth and come to knowledge
○ critic greek myths: poets are not telling truth/knowledge
● Logos:
○ meaning: word or argument
○ used in early definition of human being
● what is human being: living being/ animal but particular kind = possesses logos
○ capacity for language and rationality
● Language & rationality close connected
Text 1 Plato – Phaedrus
● Dialogue between Socrates and Phaedrus about discourse
● S. explains how philosophical understanding of the truth or any matter & the varieties
of human soul and their rhetorical susceptibilities: basis for rhetorically accomplished
speech
● Truth is known only through philosophical study
● Someone who knows the truth can toy with his audience and mislead them
● How a speech must be structured: “Every speech must be put together like a
living creature, with a body of its own.”
● Preamble with which a speech must begin, Statement of Facts and Evidence of
Witnesses concerning it, Indirect Evidence, Claims to Plausibility, Confirmation and
Supplementary Confirmation, Refutation, Supplementary Refutation (p.11)
● Writings cannot contain or constitute knowledge of any important matter, knowledge
can only be lodged in a mind
● Knowledge is only in souls
● All great arts require endless talk and ethereal speculation about nature
Lecture 1 - Philosophers and Sophists
● Communication: sharing information via spoken language, written language or
another medium
● Language & communication a problem in ancient culture/philosophy
● Sophists (already have wisdom): group of travelling teachers, willing to teach you
● Teaching: concerned with rhetoric, speaking well = convincing people
● Philosophers (love wisdom): dispute with sophists
“Why would I want to persuade someone with my opinion, when I don’t know the
truth behind the thing?” (philosopher)
● Sophists claim they can teach you how to convince other people: seem to claim to
convince people with ALL topics
○ philosopher suspicious: says you cannot know everything about all topics
● Chose different form of communication: for Rhetorics it is speech (philosophers say
this form can misguide us, not able to address questions)
● Plato: preferred form is dialogue = give opinion & ask questions
● Good liar: should be good in Rhetorics, persuade someone about something that is
not true without other seeing it is not true
○ rhetoric: art of persuasion & speaking well
○ language a tool to misguide us
● Philosophers are confronted with: can we find the truth of our reality = come to
knowledge
○ language ambiguous: tool to find truth and come to knowledge
○ critic greek myths: poets are not telling truth/knowledge
● Logos:
○ meaning: word or argument
○ used in early definition of human being
● what is human being: living being/ animal but particular kind = possesses logos
○ capacity for language and rationality
● Language & rationality close connected
Text 1 Plato – Phaedrus
● Dialogue between Socrates and Phaedrus about discourse
● S. explains how philosophical understanding of the truth or any matter & the varieties
of human soul and their rhetorical susceptibilities: basis for rhetorically accomplished
speech
● Truth is known only through philosophical study
● Someone who knows the truth can toy with his audience and mislead them
● How a speech must be structured: “Every speech must be put together like a
living creature, with a body of its own.”
● Preamble with which a speech must begin, Statement of Facts and Evidence of
Witnesses concerning it, Indirect Evidence, Claims to Plausibility, Confirmation and
Supplementary Confirmation, Refutation, Supplementary Refutation (p.11)
● Writings cannot contain or constitute knowledge of any important matter, knowledge
can only be lodged in a mind
● Knowledge is only in souls
● All great arts require endless talk and ethereal speculation about nature
