logos - presocratic - off topic
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Apr 9 18:09:00 EDT 2000
At 3:13 PM -0400 4/9/00, VINCE ENDRIS wrote:
>Dear b-greekers,
>sorry for the off-topic request. please respond off list.
>last semester i was doing a little research in the development of "logos."
>i remember reading a fragment from some greek philosopher that had to do
>with reality being cast in the light of two opposing reasons (logoi). i
>believe it was, for everything there is a negative and a positive logos. i
>ended up not using this in my paper and so had no reason to cite it. i now
>need that information again and have no idea where i read it (i think it was
>a presocratic, i even further think it was heraclitus). i have tried to
>retrace my steps, and seem to have found every book i read last semester
>except that one! does anyone know what i might have read (misread)? can
>anyone help?
>thank you,
>vince
It's a saying of the Sophist Protagoras; I don't remember exactly how it
goes in the Greek (it starts out PERI PANTOS DUO LOGOI EISIN ...) but it is
key to his definition of the function of Rhetoric: something like "On every
subject there are two LOGOI, a weaker/losing argument (hHTTWN LOGOS) and a
strong/winning argument (KREITTWN LOGOS). The function of the orator
(hRHTWR) is to turn the weaker/losing argument into the stronger/winning
one."
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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