Pandemic and Rhetoric in Thucydides

• The current pandemic has throughout the world invited a renewed discussion on public policy making in the face of the situation. Should decisions on public health be political (i. e. the subject of democratic influence/control), or best left to the experts? Actually, this is a classical question within rhetorical theory, at the very core of the conflict between rhetoric and philosophy in antiquity. The theoretical discussion in Plato and Aristotle is well-known, but another source, Thucydides, offers us the possibility to study how the question played in concrete political and rhetorical action. Fittingly, the instance offered in Thucydides occurs in his account of the political handling of the plague that swept Greece during the Peleponessian war.Taking Thucydides account as the point of departure, one must however be observant to the fact that Athenian society around 400 BC neither had politicians, nor experts, in the modern sense. Although the Athenian orator was, in a sense, an expert in the art of the state, he was per definition a counsellor, whereas political decision-making was the privilege of the assembly. The objective of political rhetoric was also common decision-making – not, as in the communication directed at citizens today, to influence the behavior of individuals. These differences in the political institutions, and their rhetorical repercussions is touched upon in my paper. But the question is also raised when it comes to the issue of the experts, touched upon for instance in Protagoras (319c-320a) where it is described how experts on specific arts could be called upon to address the political assembly when this had to handle questions pertaining to their expertise.In this paper these questions are discussed in connection with the political situation at the time of the so-called Athenian Plague. 

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Antikvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- Classical Archaeology and Ancient History (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Litteraturvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Literary studies (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora och konst -- Övrig annan humaniora (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Other Humanities not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Rhetoric

Thucydides

Pericles

Rhetorical theory

History of Rhetoric

Antiquity

Retorik

Rhetoric

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)