
087 Rhetoric and the Sophists
The History of Ancient Greece
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Gorgius' Defense of Palomides
Gorgius gives an oration through the mouthpiece of Palomides, and in it, he focuses on the invention of arguments necessary to exonerate Palomides. His speech deals with issues of morality and political commitment, and is concerned with experimenting with how a plausible argument, or topos, can cause conventional truths to be doubted. Throughout the text, Gorgius presents a method for composing arguments from possibility that are either logical, ethical, ethos, or emotional,. Aristotle describes these type of arguments about motive and capability as forensic top way.
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