22 January 2009

Lecture: Isocrates of Athens

Tonight there was presented the first lecture of the semester. The topic: Isocrates of Athens: Rhetoric, Ethics, and Education. I'll let you try to guess the connections between those three topics. Apparently he was the main rival of Plato in their day, and was one of the most widely read of the ancient Greeks right up until the 20th century, when his ideas about the twofold basis of society (religion and tradition) became really unpopular.

2 comments:

W. said...

Is there a text from Isocrates that was referenced as a source for the talk?

Thanks.

Unknown said...

Indeed, there were a few, and I'm sure I don't remember them all, but at least "Against the Sophists," and "to the Children of Jason" were among them.