For the Sake of Argument: Classical Rhetoric, Ethics, and Politics

Thomas P. Miller
THURSDAYS 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.
June 6, 13, 20, 27, 2013
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For the Sake of Argument: Classical Rhetoric, Ethics, and Politics

Summer 2013
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THURSDAYS
9:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.
June 6, 13, 20, 27, 2013

Location: 

Main Campus

What’s the value of a good argument?  That question is not merely rhetorical.  For the sake of argument, we will reassess the classical opposition of rhetoric and philosophy that was first established by Plato.  Ironically, it was not Socrates’s student but a student of the Sophists who founded the humanities upon a skepticism about received truths.  In our first class we will explore the sophistic art of deliberating upon the uncertainties of civic life, and in our second we will read Plato’s highly rhetorical attacks on rhetoric.  Then we will turn to the Aristotelian works that first formalized the interrelated arts of rhetoric, politics, and ethics.  We will conclude by reviewing the Ciceronian and Christian legacies of classical rhetoric.  Throughout the course, we will explore the values of argument and the arts for putting them into action.

Required Reading: 

Plato’s Gorgias and Aristotle’s Rhetoric. Ed. Joe Sachs. Focus Publishing, 2008. ISBN-10: 1585102997

Recommended Reading: 

The Basic Works of Aristotle. Ed. Richard McKeon. Modern Library, 2001. ISBN-10: 0375757996

Meet Your Professor

Professor
Department of English

THOMAS P. MILLER worked for 34 years at the University of Arizona before retiring in May 2022. During that time, he won two HSP teaching awards, national awards for my research, and university awards for mentoring and university leadership. He directed the Writing Program and helped found the graduate program in Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English. He also served as vice provost for faculty affairs for a decade.

  • Ted and Shirley Taubeneck Superior Teaching Award

Location

Poetry Center
Dorothy Rubel Room
1508 E Helen
Tucson, AZ 85721
United States
Located on the SE corner of Helen Street and Vine Avenue, one block north of Speedway and three blocks west of Campbell Ave.

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