Reading Response:

I feel that there were a lot of things that I learned after reading the selected pages. The first was a sophist. We are actually talking about these types of people in my ethics class. I learned what they were on the same day but in two different classes. They are not only teachers but experts of rhetoric and the art of persuasion. There were two important sophists that they talked about, Gorgias and Protagoras. I found that these two were for the same cause but took different approaches to their craft. Protagoras took a philosophical outlook on rhetoric. It stated in the reading that he made his students argue both sides. In doing this I felt that he was way ahead of his time. With rhetoric just getting started it would seem as if everyone would try and persuade their point. There were a lot of definitions in the reading. A few I thought were interesting in particular were Chiasmus and Apragmones.

Reflective Tag:

The readings put into perspective how important and powerful the possession of rhetoric is. So important and powerful that Protagoras was known to charge people money just to attend one of his lectures. Also it may have caused the Arthenians to go out and build a statue of Gorgias just purely based off of his skills of persuasion. One thing that I found interesting in the reading was Gorgias Rhetorical devices. It stated that he was in to incorporating the “sounds of words” into his speech when trying to grab the reader’s attention. This goes to show how easy an audience can be persuaded by the smallest things as well as turned. From the previous readings I didn’t fully understand why the sophists were controversial and sometimes not accepted. The only reason I could think of was is that the ratio of a sophists were very small compared to an average person. Therefore that would make them outcast because they are a very small group and also because the average person secretly have that skill. Sophists were a very rare breed of peoples with an elite level of skill. As discussed above they were very controversial but they were important to society because they provide rhetorical refreshment. I feel that these sophists need to continue with their ways and make this sort of skill contagious.