INTRODUCTION: Agrarian Posthumanism and Ancient SF CHAPTER 1: Clouds: The Phrontisterion and Its Mechanisms -I. Agrarian Spirits, Urban Anxieties -II. The Noses in the Clouds -III. The Unstable World: Matter Unbound -IV. Humanocentrism -V. From the Phrontisterion to The Nether CHAPTER 2: Birds: Avian Life Meets Human Intelligence -I. Denatured Birds or Cyborg Birds? -II. Sublime Ironies, Grotesque Cyborgs -III. Conclusion CHAPTER 3: Assemblywomen: Urban Egalitarianism and Its Discontents -I. Engineering “Equality:” An Alternative to Instrumentalization? -II. Randomization: A Poisonous Remedy? CONCLUSION: Agrarian Science Fiction Beyond Aristophanes

The Older Sophists

Aristophanes, Posthumanism, and the Roots of Science Fiction

The kingly man : an examination of the monarchical theories of the Hellenistic and Roman Empires

My thesis aims to show that detailed stylistic analysis of Plato's Greek is a key element in understanding the construction of argument in the Phaedo. I argue that style is integrally connected to the semantic structure of a text and that this is true for all stylistic modes. Accordingly, style allows us both to approach all parts of the dialogue on equal terms and to escape the usual compartmentalisation of the text which occurs in conventional `literary' and `philosophical' readings. In Part I, I propose a definition of 'style' and a detailed methodology for stylistic analysis, which I then use to analyse six short passages, chosen to reflect the Phaedo's varied stylistic modes. I consider the passages in themselves and also in terms of their stylistic affiliations to other (archaic and) classical Greek literature. Part II comprises three . `case studies', offering interpretations of selected sections, heavily based on stylistic analysis, so revealing the significance of style for the construction of argument. My first study analyses the stylistic transition between the end of Socrates' `apology' and the `argument from opposites' (Phd. 66b1-72e2), looking at the contrasting stylistic modes and their relation to the status of the passages as philosophy. I_ then concentrate on allusion, exploring how Plato's allusions to Anaxagoras mount a complex' critique, while also advancing Plato's own points. The third chapter deals with the `second sailing', showing how style and language clarify Plato's position, and examining their relation to Socrates' description of the `second sailing' as based on logoi. I demonstrate that stylistic analysis allows us a fuller understanding of Plato's argument, shedding new light both on old questions and on issues which have been relatively unor under-explored. Moreover, it points us towards a more holistic and cohesive reading of the structure of the text.

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Style and its function : the poetics of argument of Plato's Phaedo

logic. We cannot be certain o f any absolutes. The truth, if there is one, cannot save us. We must act, and in acting we make the truth for ourselves. Truth does not exist “prior to but in the working out o f its expression.”'  ̂This notion of truth, Scott argues, makes us responsible for our own actions and tolerant of others who disagree with us. To be fully human, we must see Xôyoç as deed. This is the sophistic legacy, according to Scott. '^Jarratt 2. Robert Scott 14. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust: Parts One and Two, trans. George Madison Priest, vol. 47 of Great Books o f the Western World, ed. Robert Maynard Hutchins (Chicago: William Benton, 1952) 30. '^Robert Scott 16. 5 But in the even darker shadow, cast not only by Plato and Aristotle but by all Hellas and its kin, lies another tradition for whom word was deed long before the sophists dazzled crowds in the agora. Thorlief Boman, in his penetrating comparison of Hebrew and Greek thought, also refers to Faust’s translation o f John 1:1. Rather than employing a “contrived witticism” as some commentators say, “Goethe is on solid linguistic ground because he goes back to the Hebrew (Aramaic) original and translates its deepest meaning.”'* In Hebrew, the term dabhar can be translated as both “word” and “thing.” It is, like most Hebrew terms, an active concept, not passive like the Greek term Xôyoç. The Hebrew term dabhar “forms a unity of word and deed.”" “The word is the highest and noblest function of man [sic] and is, for that reason, identical with his action. ‘W ord’ and ‘deed’ are thus not two different meanings of dabhar^ but the ‘deed’ is the consequence of the basic meaning inhering in d a b h a r . D a b h a r has the same weight in Hebrew as logos does in Greek. “[Tjhese two words teach us what the two peoples considered primary and essential in mental life: on the one side the dynamic, masterful, energetic— on the other side the ordered, moderate, thought-out, calculated, meaningful, rational.”'  ̂It is in this way that Scott, without knowing it, links his rhetoric as epistemic doctrine and the sophistic tradition to Hebrew conception o f “word.” What Boman identifies as Greek, Scott identifies with traditional philosophical rhetoric; what Boman '*Thorleif Boman, Hebrew Thought Compared with Greek, trans. Jules L. Moreau (New York: W.W. Norton & Co.. 1960) 66. ' ’ Boman 66. Boman 65. '"Boman 68. sees as Hebrew, Scott attributes to the sophists— an active, energetic, dynamic dimension. These connections do not end with Hebrew thought, either. They extend to a proto-rhetorical tradition that spanned the ancient Near East before the sophists. In the introduction to her translation o f ancient Egyptian Literature, Miriam Lichtheim describes “Egypt’s high regard for the art o f using words, a valuation o f rhetoric comparable to that which was to prevail in Greece and Rome.” “̂ Admittedly, Lichtheim is not a rhetorician and may be somewhat partisan in her assessment o f Egyptian rhetoric, but the rhetorical instructions in Egyptian literature are obvious even without Lichtheim’s preface. For example, the Instmctions o f Ptahhotep begins “Good speech is more hidden than greenstone, /Yet may be found among maids at the grindstones.” '̂ What follows is a fairly detailed set of instructions for how to deal with different kinds of disputants— a superior, an equal, or a subordinate. T \ ïqsq Instructions read like an ode to TO Tcpéîtov, the sophistic notion o f the appropriate response.^^ In both specific content and general theme, this work rivals the extant sophistic instructions on speechmaking. This ancient near eastern rhetoric was not called “rhetoric” That term is, of course, Greek, and Schiappa, as does Cole, argues that it was coined fairly late by Plato.^^ But instructions for how to speak were part of the pre-sophistic wisdom tradition of these Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book o f Readings, Vol 1 (Los Angeles: U of California P, 1975) 10. Lichtheim I 63. John Poulakos, “Toward a Sophistic Definition of Rhetoric” and Mario Untersteiner, The Sophists, trans. Kathleen Freeman (New York: Philosophical Library, 1954) 197ff. Cole 2 and Edward Schiappa, Protagoras and Logos: A Study in Greek Philosophy and Rhetoric (Columbia, SC: U of South Carolina P, 1991) 4Off. 7 ancient cultures. The sophists as oocpicrai, “wise men” or “wise women,” participated in a Hellenic and proto-westem version of this ancient wisdom tradition. Out o f the shadow come questions, then, about the very origins o f rhetoric and the character of sophistic theory and practice. I. Statement of Problem We find in the shadow of the ancient near eastern wisdom tradition a riddle, however faint. Many have looked to the sophists for prototypical conceptions of western rhetoric, yet many sophistic themes appear to pre-date even the sophists themselves. Simply put, there may be another rhetoric, less western and more provocative than theirs, yet from which the sophists drew. We generally begin rhetorical history with the Greeks because they were the first to theorize, yet by allowing the atheoretical sophists into the contest we open the door for other atheoretical rhetorics that came before them. We assume that early sophistic practice is integrally tied to later sophistic theory, yet other more ancient rhetorics appear to have held elements o f sophistic practice without the ensuing development of theory. All o f these issues from the shadow of the past point to the general research question o f this dissertation. How does an understanding o f the ancient near eastern wisdom traditions alter our conception o f sophistic rhetoric? There are several subsidiary questions that fold into this central issue: What was the rhetorical character of the sophists’ teaching? What was the rhetorical character o f the ancient near eastern wisdom traditions? What common features are there between the sophistic rhetoric and the 8 ancient near eastern wisdom traditions? What are the significant differences between these two traditions and how do these affect their respective rhetorics? And finally, since the sophists are enlisted as allies in contemporary debates, how does the presence of, and possible connection to, the ancient near eastern wisdom tradition affect the place of the sophists in these present-day debates? This dissertation seeks to answer the questions revolving around a comparison of the sophists and the ancient near eastern wisdom tradition by comparing the texts of both traditions. In doing so, I believe we will be able to see the sophists not only as epistemological skeptics who responded to the problems in their culture with a relativistic emphasis on human persuasion, but also as the last representatives of the ancient wisdom tradition, thoroughly secular and stripped of their religious dogma by the spirit o f their day, but still maintaining aspects of that tradition. It may well be that the sophists, whom some may argue are the material antithesis to philosophical reflection which was resolved in Plato and Aristotle, were the product o f a dialectic themselves between East and West, philosophy and wisdom. This dissertation explores the nature of this dialectic as well. To understand how these questions fit into the current discussions of sophistic rhetoric, we should now turn to a review of the significant literature on the sophists, followed by a discussion of the literature dealing with the ancient near eastern wisdom tradition. II. Review of Significant Literature Over the last several years, there have been more and more studies dealing with the sophists as well as ancient near eastern wisdom. This review will consider each separately. After a discussion of the term “sophist,” the review o f literature on the sophists begins with noteworthy ancient and modem critiques of the sophists, followed by those studies which have some bearing on the origins o f the sophistic tradition. It will then move to recent studies o f the sophists in general, followed by those recent studies that focus on sophistic rhetoric. The section dealing with the wisdom tradition begins with those studies that provide a general characterization of the wisdom tradition, and moves to those studies dealing with wisdom rhetoric specifically. A. Literature on the Sophists The significant literature on the sophists begins with the commentaries on them by Plato and Aristotle, which solidified what was to become the received view of the sophists.^'* This view persisted for over two millennia until nineteenth-century historians began to change the approach to the sophists, seeing them at least as an important part of the development of western thought or even as allies in democratic struggles.^^ The ‘̂ see Cole and Eduard Zeller, A Histoty o f Greek Philosophy, 2 vols, trans. S. F. Alleyne (London: Longmans, Green, 1881), Wilhelm Windelband, Histoty o f Ancient Philosophy, 3rd ed, trans. Herbert Ernest Cushman (New York: Scribner’s, 1924), and W. Nestle, Votn M ythoszwn Logos (Aalen: Scientia-Verlag, 1966). Even Giambattista Vico, who has been considered an ally of the sophists, refers to them as those “who went around selling their vain and illusory knowledge abroad to make a profit from their art.” On the Most Ancient Wisdom o f the Italians, trans. L.M. Palmer (London, Cornell UP, 1988)155. ^*G. F. Hegel, Lectures on the Histoty o f Philosophy, 4 vols, trans. E. S. Haldane (New York: Humanities P, 1963), George Grote, A Histoty o f Greece Frotti the Earliest 10 twentieth century continues the trend toward a reconsideration o f the sophists, with rhetorical scholars using them, as we have alluded, to help advance a subjectivistic, aesthetic approach to rhetoric. As we consider this literature, we will pay particular attention to how each author addresses the sophists’ shadowy origins.

The end of the sage : a reconceptualization of the sophists in light of ancient Near Eastern wisdom /

This dissertation advances a solution to a problem intrinsic to understanding the dialogues of Plato. How are we to understand Plato's thought when he never speaks in his own name in any of his dialogues? Many writers assume that Plato's characters (e.g., Socrates) speak for him. With this assumption, they study the thought articulated by Plato's characters as if it were his own, and elaborate a so-called "doctrinal" interpretation. A variety of subjective readings follows, since what Socrates and other characters say in the dialogues is often inconsistent or contradictory. To resolve these problems the dissertation constructs a method for interpreting Socratic dialogue which is true to the genre. Extending the work of Bakhtin, Clay, and Kahn, it develops a metalanguage for specifying the structure, plot, aim (telos), and effect (ergon) of a dialogue as well as the thought (dianoia), character (ethos), and pathos of its participants, by applying concepts in Plato's dialogues and in Aristotle's Poetics, Ethics, Politics, Metaphysics, Physics, and other works. The dissertation shows that the Republic represents Glaucon as

The Older Sophists

Citations

Aristophanes, Posthumanism, and the Roots of Science Fiction

The kingly man : an examination of the monarchical theories of the Hellenistic and Roman Empires

Style and its function : the poetics of argument of Plato's Phaedo

The end of the sage : a reconceptualization of the sophists in light of ancient Near Eastern wisdom /

The structure of Socratic dialogue : an Aristotelian analysis /