ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the evolution of persuasion as a concept from its mythical associations with the goddess Peitho to its association with logos by the Sophists. It shows how the Sophists give us a set of parameters for rhetorical thinking and provide an epistemological rationale for “democracy.” Human beings need the freedom to think creatively and rhetorically. “Rhetoric serves the function of the democracy,” implies the myth, just as the invention of the atom bomb by the United States implies that its use serves in the defense of democracy. Likewise, in the myth about the “invention” of rhetoric, Corax names rhetoric on behalf of democracy. If democracy has any rationale at all, it is that the more people who contribute to the logos, the richer our understanding will be of our political realities. The Ionian philosophers were among the first people in Ancient Greece to break from the Greek preoccupation with deity worship.