Let’s talk about rhetoric! Plutarch’s position within a long, ideologically burdened tradition in the history of education

Abstract

The question of Plutarch’s attitude towards rhetoric has occupied several scholars since the 19th century. The traditional view is that it is rather negative. Although Plutarch acknowledges some value in rhetoric as a means of persuasion in politics, he nevertheless attributes the dominant role to ethos. As it will be shown below, however, this picture is only partially justified after a closer examination of the relevant texts in their historical-cultural context. In the present work, Plutarch’s remarks on rhetoric are considered against the background of the traditional conflict between rhetoric and philosophy, and analyzed in relation to three thematically significant oppositions, namely that between teaching and persuading, between speech and ethos, and between the philosophers and the sophists. The result is that the secondary, supporting role that rhetoric assumes in certain passages as a means of persuasion is to be relativized rather than emphasized. It can be explained in each case on the basis of its argumentative function. In other cases in Plutarch’s work, where rhetoric is discussed, the attitude expressed is in principle positive without the usual opposition between speech and ethos playing a role at the same time.