Isocrates (; ; 436–338 BC) was an ancient Greek rhetorician, one of the ten Attic orators. Among the most influential Greek rhetoricians of his time, Isocrates made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works.
Greek rhetoric is commonly traced to Corax of Syracuse, who first formulated a set of rhetorical rules in the fifth century BC. His pupil Tisias was influential in the development of the rhetoric of the courtroom, and by some accounts was the teacher of Isocrates. Within two generations, rhetoric had become an important art, its growth driven by social and political changes such as democracy and courts of law. Isocrates starved himself to death, reportedly out of disappointment with the loss of Greek liberty following the Battle of Chaeronea, two years before his 100th birthday.
Isocrates wrote a number of works calling on the Greeks to unite and invade the Persian empire. He addressed a number of Greek leaders asking them to undertake such a campaign, and later in his life he saw Philip II of Macedon as the ruler who could accomplish this task. He did not live to see the conquest of the Persian empire by Philip's son and successor, Alexander the Great.
Early life and influences
Isocrates was born into a prosperous family in Athens at the height of Athens's power, shortly before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC). According to the Suda, a Byzantine-era encyclopedia, Isocrates was the son of Theodorus who owned a workshop that manufactured auloi (a type of musical instrument). His mother's name was Heduto. He had a sister and three brothers; his brothers were named Tisippos, Theomnestos and Theodoros.
Isocrates received a first-rate education. "He is reported to have studied with several prominent teachers, including Tisias (one of the traditional founders of rhetoric), the sophists Prodicus and Gorgias, and the moderate oligarch Theramenes, and to have associated with Socrates, but these reports may reflect later views of his intellectual roots more than historical fact". There are accounts, including that of Isocrates himself, stating that the Peloponnesian War wiped out his father's estate, and Isocrates was forced to earn a living.
Late in his life, he married a woman named Plathane (daughter of the sophist Hippias) and adopted Aphareus, one of her sons by a previous marriage. After founding his own school , Isocrates abandoned judicial affairs entirely and even disparaged the profession of speech-writing.
Pedagogy
Around 392 BC Isocrates set up his own school of rhetoric at the Lyceum. Prior to Isocrates, teaching consisted of first-generation Sophists, such as Gorgias and Protagoras, walking from town to town as itinerants, who taught any individuals interested in political occupations how to be effective in public speaking. Isocrates encouraged his students to wander and observe public behavior in the city (Athens) to learn through imitation. His students aimed to learn how to serve the city. The first students in Isocrates's school were Athenians. However, after he published the Panegyricus in 380 BC, his reputation spread to many other parts of Greece.
Isocrates did not live to see the conquest of the Persian empire by Philip's son and successor, Alexander the Great. He reportedly starved himself to death four days (or nine days) after the Battle of Chaeronea
Philosophy of rhetoric
According to George Norlin, Isocrates defined rhetoric as outward feeling and inward thought of not merely expression, but reason, feeling, and imagination. Like most who studied rhetoric before and after him, Isocrates believed it was used to persuade ourselves and others, but also used in directing public affairs. Isocrates described rhetoric as "that endowment of our human nature which raises us above mere animality and enables us to live the civilized life." Isocrates unambiguously defined his approach in the speech "Against the Sophists". This polemic was written to explain and advertise the reasoning and educational principles behind his new school. He promoted broad-based education by speaking against two types of teachers: the Eristics, who disputed about theoretical and ethical matters, and the Sophists, who taught political debate techniques.
Isocrates's program of rhetorical education stressed the ability to use language to address practical problems, and he referred to his teachings as more of a philosophy than a school of rhetoric. He emphasized that students needed three things to learn: a natural aptitude which was inborn, knowledge training granted by teachers and textbooks, and applied practices designed by educators. We have nine letters in his name, but the authenticity of four of those has been questioned. He is said to have compiled a treatise, the Art of Rhetoric, but there is no known copy. Other surviving works include his autobiographical Antidosis, and educational texts such as Against the Sophists.
Isocrates wrote a collection of ten known orations, three of which were directed to the rulers of Salamis on Cyprus. In To Nicocles, Isocrates suggests first how the new king might rule best. For the extent of the rest of the oration, Isocrates advises Nicocles of ways to improve his nature, such as the use of education and studying the best poets and sages. Isocrates concludes with the notion that, in finding the happy mean, it is better to fall short than to go to excess. His second oration concerning Nicocles was related to the rulers of Salamis on Cyprus; this was written for the king and his subjects. Isocrates again stresses that the surest sign of good understanding is education and the ability to speak well. The king uses this speech to communicate to the people what exactly he expects of them. Isocrates makes a point in stating that courage and cleverness are not always good, but moderation and justice are. The third oration about Cyprus is an encomium to Euagoras who is the father of Nicocles. Isocrates uncritically applauds Euagoras for forcibly taking the throne of Salamis and continuing rule until his assassination in 374 BC.
Two years after his completion of the three orations, Isocrates wrote an oration for Archidamus, the prince of Sparta. Isocrates considered the settling of the Thebans colonists in Messene a violation of the Peace of Antalcidas. He was bothered most by the fact that this ordeal would not restore the true Messenians but rather the Helots, in turn making these slaves masters. Isocrates believed justice was most important, which secured the Spartan laws but he did not seem to recognize the rights of the Helots. Ten years later Isocrates wrote a letter to Archidamus, now the king of Sparta, urging him to reconcile the Greeks, stopping their wars with each other so that they could end the insolence of the Persians. his contributions to the study and practice of rhetoric have received more attention. Thomas M. Conley argues that through Isocrates's influence on Cicero, whose writings on rhetoric were the most widely and continuously studied until the modern era, "it might be said that Isocrates, of all the Greeks, was the greatest." With the neo-Aristotelian turn in rhetoric, Isocrates's work is sometimes cast as a mere precursor to Aristotle's systematic account in On Rhetoric. However, Ekaterina Haskins reads Isocrates as an enduring and worthwhile counter to Aristotelian rhetoric. Rather than the Aristotelian position on rhetoric as a neutral tool, Isocrates understands rhetoric as an identity-shaping performance that activates and sustains civic identity. Isocrates's work has also been described as proto-Pragmatist, owing to his assertion that rhetoric makes use of probable knowledge with the aim resolving real problems in the world.
Isocrates's innovations in the art of rhetoric paid closer attention to expression and rhythm than any other Greek writer, though because his sentences were so complex and artistic, he often sacrificed clarity.