Josiah Ober discusses some of the circumstances of Socrates’ death – and the attitudes towards public oration by contemporaneous Athenians – in his review of Bettany Hughes’ book, The Hemlock Cup.
Tag Archives: Greek & Roman
Miller on Parmenides, Heraclitus & the law of non-contradiction
Nathan Schneider interviews Patrick Lee Miller about his new book, Becoming God: Pure Reason in Early Greek Philosophy.
Hugely extended Graeco-Roman philosophy page
I’m pleased to say that my page of links to Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy has been quite considerably extended, and now includes more pre-Socratics, more Plato and Aristotle, and gives a kind of edited chronology up to and including (St) Augustine of Hippo. I hope you enjoy reading (some of) the works therein.
Alcidamas on the Sophists
In the middle of massively enlarging the (currently threadbare) Graeco-Roman philosophy page on this site, I came across this delightful (and, ironically, written) denunciation of sophistry and written speeches by Alcidamas, a rhetorician and pupil of Gorgias, who flourished at around the same time as Plato.
According to Alcidamas, the highest goal of oration is to speak ex tempore on every imaginable subject. His style was criticised for its overblown pomposity by Aristotle, and he seems to have composed the declamation above to goad his chief rival in rhetoric, Isocrates. It’s a fun read.
Growing my Ancient Philosophy resources…
My Ancient philosophy page is starting to come together, though I still have plenty of links to add (at the moment, I’m missing entries on Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes and other well-known pre-Socractic philosophers, as well as entries on Hellenistic and Roman philosophers and schools of thought).