The Ethics of Rhetoric

Au VIe siecle avant J.-C., Solon a joue un role politique important a Athenes. Legislateur, il a etabli des lois. Legislateur, mais aussi poete : des fragments poetiques qui vont du poeme complet a un simple vers nous ont ete transmis grâce a des auteurs posterieurs. Jusqu’a present, les etudes sur Solon ont, pour la majeure partie, cherche a mieux cerner le legislateur athenien d’une part, a comprendre la pensee postulee dans les poemes d’autre part. Ces demarches visent toutes deux a enrichir notre connaissance lacunaire du VIe siecle avant J.-C. Le scepticisme applique aux sources de la tradition indirecte, qui nous apporte des informations sur Solon, a ouvert de nouvelles perspectives. Le projet que nous proposons s’inscrit dans cet heritage. Nous nous interessons aux auteurs des Ve et IVe siecles avant J.-C. pour analyser, dans la lettre du texte, ce qu’ils disent de Solon et surtout, la maniere dont ils le disent. Ainsi, il sera possible de saisir les dynamiques de transmission, de mutation et d’appropriation de cette figure d’autorite chez chacun des auteurs de notre corpus, car tiree a hue et a dia, la figure de Solon a servi des causes fort differentes. Puisque la tradition conditionne fortement les interpretations de la poesie solonienne et l’etude de son action politico-legislative, il etait necessaire de revenir a la source meme de toutes ces interpretations. Des lors, il sera possible d’enrichir notre connaissance de l’histoire politique et intellectuelle de l’Athenes democratique du IVe siecle, mieux comprendre le rapport qu’elle entretient avec son propre passe, mais aussi saisir comment se construit une argumentation politique et une ideologie propre a une societe donnee a un moment precis de son histoire.

DYNAMIQUES ET MUTATIONS D᾽UNE FIGURE D᾽AUTORITÉ : RECHERCHES SUR LA RÉCEPTION DE SOLON AUX V e ET IV e SIÈCLES

Ancient philosophers employed the topos of ideal kingship as a way to think about monarchy and the superior person who could ascend to this office. Following those modern scholars who have used topoi from Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman moral philosophy to study the apostle Paul’s writings as part of the intellectual milieu of the first century, I compare the Hellenistic topos of ideal kingship with Pauline Christology. This comparison is achieved by examining the origins of the ideal kingship topos in fourth-century texts by Isocrates (To Nicocles) and Xenophon (Cyropaedia). These two classical writers emphasize the superiority of the king and the virtues that establish this superiority. The king’s care for his subjects forms the core of this construction of ideal kingship. With the exception of three Neopythagorean tracts entitled On Kingship, no kingship treatises produced by the Hellenistic philosophical schools have survived. Nevertheless, by studying how Cynic, Stoic, and Epicurean thinkers deal with kingship in other contexts, I am able to postulate the silhouette of the ideal king as he might have been conceived of in each of these schools. The portrait that emerges from the Neopythagorean writings contributes further to the Hellenistic topos of ideal kingship. Selected texts from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible are also studied in order to determine what Paul might have learned about ideal kingship from them. Next, three Hellenistic Jewish texts (the Letter of Aristeas, Philo’s Life of Moses, and Wisdom of Solomon) are discussed in order to demonstrate the fusion between Jewish and Greek constructions of ideal kingship. Finally, the undisputed Pauline letters are examined alongside the various configurations of ideal kingship found in the preceding chapters. I conclude that Paul has drawn on both Hellenistic and Jewish traditions in order to write about Jesus the Messiah to nascent groups of Graeco-Roman believers. iii Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za

Is Jesus king? A critical examination of Paul's thought in the context of the Hellenistic kingship topos

Early Greek Political Thought from Homer to the Sophists: The Old Oligarch

As rhetorical scholars adopt field methods to complement traditional text-based criticism, it is necessary to reflect on the ethical standards that guide our practice of rhetorical criticism and an...

Rhetoric and Ethics Revisited: What Happens When Rhetorical Scholars Go Into the Field

Critical, postmodern, and constitutive rhetorics are typically guided by an ethical stance opposing domination and marginalization. However, this stance often functions as an unreflective morality operating outside the constitutive practices of rhetoric itself. To locate an ethical stance within rhetorical practice, we can turn to Isocrates, who practiced a constitutive rhetoric that had a strong moral orientation. His dependence on piety as a receptive attitude toward persuasive discourse may provide the insight necessary to develop an ethic supporting the critical orientation of current rhetorical theory.

Kenneth R. Chase

Papers

Constructing Ethics through Rhetoric: Isocrates and Piety