Christopher Roser: Rational Persuasion in Plato – What is the Difference between Dialetical and Rhetorical Argumentation?
Christopher Roser of the Humboldt University in Berlin will give a guest lecture at the Department of Philosophy. The lecture is organized by the DICTUM research project.
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Abstract
The dialectical argumentation we find in Plato’s dialogues counts till today as one of the paradigmatic examples for the activity of giving and receiving reasons. Yet, as to what dialectical argumentation precisely consists in and what kind of arguments count as dialectically successful remains disputed. In this talk, I approach these questions by considering how Plato specifies the dialectical kind of argumentation by delineating it form rhetorical argumentation (especially in the Gorgias 471cff., but also in the second part of the Phaedrus). With this delineation, I argue, Plato introduces a conception of rational persuasion – which both appeals to the rational nature of humans and renders them autonomous – and specifies dialectical argumentation as aiming at it.
