PHILO-120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Dazzle Camouflage, Direct Democracy, Sophist
12 Aug 2020
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In the fifth century, first during the persian war (documented by herodotus, the. Histories) and then during the peloponnesian war (documented by thucydides, History of the peloponnesian war), athens adopted direct democracy. This political arrangement created a situation in which the ability to persuade others through eloquent orations/speeches and debate entailed significant power and influence; grandstanding to impress the crowd. The sophists were masters at persuasion through rhetoric, the skill of artfully employing language to dazzle and emotionally move the audience. Others were teachers of the art of rhetoric, charging for their services. In either case, reason was conceived as a tool or instrument for power and. To make the weaker argument the stronger. Man is the measure of all things; of existing things: that they exist; of non-existing things, that they do not exist. Destroy one"s opponent"s seriousness with laughter and his laughter with seriousness.
