CMNS
110 SPR 07 Final
Assignment (Take-home)
DETAILS
1. Worth 20%
2. Due, when? Thursday
April 12,
by 4:00
(16:00)
3. Drop off, where? School of
CMNS main office, ensure
the paper is
stamped
received.
4. Word limit: Between 750 -
1250 words; 5
pp maximum.
GUIDELINES
The assignment can be treated as either a paper or a
take-home exam. It is made of 4 questions and they can be
answered as such without a general preamble to the exam.
You may also approach the questions as subheadings,
although they must be made explicit.
Bibliography and proper citations of texts are mandatory.
Use an accepted style, though use it correctly and
consistently. Questions are based on the Walter Hamilton
translation of Plato’s Phaedrus.
You are encouraged, however, to make use of such additional
(properly documented) sources are necessary to complete the
assignment.
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ASSIGNMENT
Preamble:
Summing up Socrates, Hamilton writes: “True rhetoric
requires not only talent and practice, but also training
and method of a philosopher.”
Questions:
1. What is ultimate purpose or goal of “true
rhetoric,” how might such a rhetoric be defined?
2. Why are such training and method required for a
“true rhetoric,” to what do they refer and add
to talent and practice?
3. List and explain the key organizing elements and rules
guiding what Socrates considers excellent discourse.
4. Why, compared to dialogue, does Socrates have issues
with the written word? Why does Socrates call writing a
“pharmakon?”
Wouldn't dialogue be a "pharmakon,"
too?
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RETRIEVAL OF
GRADED WORK:
Once all the papers have been graded, and the School's
Director has signed-off on the final grades, I'll send
everyone and e-mail that work can be picked up.
You'll pick up you work at the office where you dropped it
off during regular office hours. All student work is
held for a year, so you can retrieve yours anytime
within the year. Following a year's storage, the
school destroys unclaimed papers.