Notes for Isocrates

sources come from Isocrates I by Mirady and Too

Against the Sophists

• “I think it is clear to all that it is not in our nature to know in advance what is going to happen. We fall so short of this intelligence that Homer, who enjoys the highest reputation for wisdow, has written that the gods sometimes debate about the future—not because he knows their thoughts but because he wants to show us this one thing (i.e. knowledge of the future) is impossible for human beings” (62) (Attached note reads: “That the gods deliberate about the future shows that they do not know about the future, and if the gods do not, how can humans? Aristotle (Rhetoric 2.23-4) uses this argument to illustrate the topos of “the more and the less,” that is, a fortiori reasoning.”)
• “They [the Sophists] do not attribute any of this power either to the student’s experiences or to his native ability, but they say that the science of speeches is like teaching the alphabet” (63).
• “They have a poor understanding that it is not those who make bold boasts about arts who make them great, but those who can discover the power there is in each art” (63).
• “Who—besides them—has not seen that while the function of letters is unchanging and remains the same, so the we always keep using the same letters for the same sounds, the function of words is entirely opposite. What is said by one person is not useful in a similar way for the next speaker, but that man seems more artful who both speaks worthily of the subject matter and can discover things to say that are entirely different from what others have said. The greatest indication of the difference is that speeches cannot be good unless they reflect the circumstances, propriety, and originality, but none of these requirements extends to letters” (64).

Antidosis

• “Although I was of an advanced age, I did not shrink from completing this speech, which was composed most truthfully; as for its other qualities, let those who hear it decide. Those who read it should realize that they are listening to a mixed discourse, encompassing all these different subjects, and they should pay greater attention to what will be said than to what came before” (207). (Attached Note: “Isocrates has in mind an audience that listens to the text being read out”).
• In 14-17, Isocrates talks about Lysimachus holding his speeches while denouncing him. He then says “while others refute slanders through speech, Lysimachus has slandered precisely my speeches so that if I appear to speak successfully, I stand convincted of the accusations he has made against my cleverness” (208). It seems that Isocrates is unclear between the relationship between the copies of his speech and his voice (cf. Derrida).