Theoretical trends in the art of public speaking among Greek thinkers from the fifth century until the beginning of the fourth century BC

Elshenawy, Mahmoud Ayoub Mahmoud

doi:10.21608/qarts.2023.252967.1821

Theoretical trends in the art of public speaking among Greek thinkers from the fifth century until the beginning of the fourth century BC

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Mahmoud Ayoub Mahmoud Elshenawy

Assistant Professor - Greek Philosophy Faculty of Arts - Department of Philosophy Kafr Al-Sheikha University

10.21608/qarts.2023.252967.1821

Abstract

This research aims to present the theoretical trends of the art of public speaking among Greek thinkers “from the fifth century until the beginning of the fourth century BC.” These are theoretical trends developed by thinkers who were aware of the importance of the role played by the art of speech or “rhetoric” in gaining belief - whether mental or emotional - By a listener.
Hence, rhetoric, alongside philosophy, occupied serious ranks in the Athenian metropolis, as these two fields were not merely fields of knowledge experimented in laboratories and classrooms, but rather a conflict existed between them regarding power and governance, so who should rule? Philosophers or preachers? The research showed that the theorizing of Greek thinkers in the fifth century BC had an impact on the development of the art of rhetoric, and there is no doubt that the outcome of these and other rhetorical theorizing bore fruit at the end of the fifth century and the beginning of the fourth century BC, as it opened the way for “critical” theorizing. Rhetoric has philosophical foundations according to both Isocrates and Plato, where rhetoric became for them an art and an industry that was aware of itself, when the lofty moral goal and purpose were defined for it.

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