Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 INTRODUCTION: Terms of Art as a Focus in the History of Rhetorical Theory
- 2 DIALEGESTHAI AS A TERM OF ART: Plato and the Disciplining of Dialectic
- 3 PHILOSOPHIA AS A TERM OF ART: Recovering Isocrates
- 4 TERMS OF ART FOR PUBLIC DELIBERATION: Dēmēgoria and Symboulē
- 5 TERMS OF ART AND THE INTERPRETATION OF TEXTS: The Disciplinary Status of the Rhetoric to Alexander
- 6 TERMS OF ART AND INFERRING THEORY: When Did the Parts of a Speech Become Formalized?
- 7 EPILOGUE
- References
- Index
2 - DIALEGESTHAI AS A TERM OF ART: Plato and the Disciplining of Dialectic
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 INTRODUCTION: Terms of Art as a Focus in the History of Rhetorical Theory
- 2 DIALEGESTHAI AS A TERM OF ART: Plato and the Disciplining of Dialectic
- 3 PHILOSOPHIA AS A TERM OF ART: Recovering Isocrates
- 4 TERMS OF ART FOR PUBLIC DELIBERATION: Dēmēgoria and Symboulē
- 5 TERMS OF ART AND THE INTERPRETATION OF TEXTS: The Disciplinary Status of the Rhetoric to Alexander
- 6 TERMS OF ART AND INFERRING THEORY: When Did the Parts of a Speech Become Formalized?
- 7 EPILOGUE
- References
- Index
Summary
We move now to a particular example of the disciplining of discourse through the refinement of a term of art. Specifically, we are interested in Plato, dialogue, and the term “dialectic.” Our intention is to describe Plato's adaptation of a term of art for his own purposes. Therefore, this chapter investigates the late fifth-century “sophistic” practice of holding dialogue and charts the subsequent disciplining of dialegesthai as a practice of philosophical dialogue in the works of Plato.
The definitions of key terms are straightforward, hē dialektikē is “the art of dialogue,” or simply “dialectic,” and dialegesthai is typically translated as “to converse,” “to dialogue,” or “holding dialogue.” Dialegesthai represents the present middle infinitive form of the verb dialegō; however, like the verb dialegomai, dialegesthai is a deponent of dialegō, thus dialegesthai is typically translated in the active voice.
We can find the verb dielexato, “hold converse,” as early as Homer's Iliad. In this work, the verb always appears as part of an identical formula, alla ti hē moi tauta philos dielexato thumos, translated by A. T. Murray (1924) as “But why doth my heart thus hold converse with me?” (11.407, 17.97, 21.562, 22.122, 22.385). Similarly, the earliest preserved use of dialegesthai in prose refers to informal conversation or discussion. Herodotus describes how Lycophron would not “converse with” (dialegomenôi) his mother's murderer (3.50.3).
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010