Rhetoric Society Quarterly Dec 2006

Wise Ignorance and Socratic Interiority: Recovering a Dialogic Rhetoric

Daniel A. Grano University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

This article argues for the recovery of an interior ignorance from Socrates's life of philosophy as a contribution to recent constructions of dialogic rhetoric. Synthesizing Bakhtin's reading of Socratic contestation with his concept of microdialogue, a view of dialogic rhetoric emerges that combines the testing of ideas and persons with interior conditions of doubt, anxiety, and ambivalence. A reading of Socrates's enactment of an interior/exterior piety in the Apology of Socrates is offered to demonstrate how interior ignorance uncovers the double-voicedness of rhetorical texts. The article counterposes this fuller interior/exterior view of ignorance against exteriorized suspicions directed at the character of Socrates, and the idea of ignorance, in rhetorical and cultural criticism.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2006-12-15
DOI
10.1080/02773940600860025
CompPile
Open Access
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Citation context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Hoppmann (2022)
    Reasonable Reconstruction of Socratic Irony in Public Discourse
    Argumentation

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