• Disfiguring Socratic Irony

    Author(s):
    Eric Detweiler (see profile)
    Date:
    2016
    Group(s):
    Philosophy
    Subject(s):
    Philosophy, Continental, Teaching, Rhetoric, Writing
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    20th Century Continental Philosophy, pedagogy, rhetoric, Socrates, Writing Studies, Classical rhetoric, Continental philosophy, Pedagogy
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6BR3Z
    Abstract:
    This article pursues an antihermeneutic conception of Socratic irony that troubles the borders between pedagogical authority and humility. One of the most tenacious ways of troping the teacher-student relation, Socratic irony is often figured as a way for a masterful teacher to exercise authority over a student. Drawing on the writings of Søren Kierkegaard and Avital Ronell, this article repositions such irony as an uncontrollability in language itself—one that can humble and humiliate teacher and student alike. Via divergent readings of Plato’s Gorgias and Aristophanes’ Clouds, as well as Bruno Latour’s interpretation of the former, I question how this approach to Socratic irony might re- and unwork rhetoricians’ positions of mastery with regard to both students and systematized bodies of knowledge.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.5325/philrhet.49.2.0149
    Publisher:
    The Pennsylvania State University Press
    Pub. Date:
    2016-4-19
    Journal:
    Philosophy & Rhetoric
    Volume:
    49
    Issue:
    2
    ISSN:
    0031-8213
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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