COM 383 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Tisias, Physis, Kairos
12 Sep 2019
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● STREPSIADES:
○ They say that those men ha ve two kinds of arguments—the Better, whatever that may mean, and
the Worse
○ The Worse can make an unjust case and win
○ Teach you how to ma ke the weaker argument the strongest
● Sophistry:
○ To sound really good
○ The use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving
○ Sophia: Wisdom
○ Traveling teachers and practitioners of speaking as an art and as a game to be won.
● Rhetoric’s Origin Myth:
○ First greek rhetorician named Corax
○ Corax vs Tisias
● Polis started to change how people interacted
○ Speech beca me a political tool and the key to all authority as the mea ns of commanding and
cominating others
○ A city sta te in ancient Greece, especially as considered in its ideal form for philosophical purpose
○ Speech was now a n open debate and a discussion
○ Greek focused on competition. This is now a competition of ideas
● Speaking as a Game:
○ Sophist: From the word sophia, meaning wisdom Traveling teachers and practitioners of speaking
as an art and as a game to be won
○ The power of speaking: You ca n bring the world you want into being
○ The challenge of the game: Others ca n too
○ The teacher: I can teach you to be excellent and to win
● Dangerous Tea chers:
○ Possible selfish motives
○ Bias
○ Ca n make untrue statements seem truthful
○ Masters of ma nipula tion
○ Profiteers
● Man is the Measure of a ll Things
○ Anthropocentric notion of truth
■ Human-centered truth
■ The tendency to reason about unfamiliar biological species or processes by analogy to
humans
