Kelber, Werner H.2009-06-042009-06-041991Holloway, Paul Andrew. "Plato's critique of rhetoric and the transition from orality in ancient Greece: The "Gorgias" and the "Phaedrus" revisited." (1991) Master’s Thesis, Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/13501">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/13501</a>.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/13501The political and cultural forces of Periclean Athens brought rhetoric to the fore as the master knowledge. Through the school of Isocrates this perspective continued into the fourth century. Read in this context Plato's degrading attack on rhetoric in the Gorgias can readily be reconciled with his surprisingly positive treatment of it in the Phaedrus. In the Gorgias he does not debunk rhetoric per se, but only rhetorical culture, that is, rhetoric as conceived by his contemporaries as chief among the arts, $\eta$ $\kappa\alpha\lambda\lambda\iota\sigma\tau\eta$ $\tau\omega\nu$ $\tau\varepsilon\chi\nu\omega\nu$. On the other hand, in the Phaedrus he recommends rhetoric conceived in a limited sense as simply one art among many. This is supported by the recent work of Robert Conners who interprets Plato's criticism of rhetorical culture in light of the transition from oral to literate culture in fourth-century Greece.180 p.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.PhilosophySpeech communicationPlato's critique of rhetoric and the transition from orality in ancient Greece: The "Gorgias" and the "Phaedrus" revisitedThesisThesis Reli. 1991 Holloway