How I am spending my summer “vacation” (and ‘Jack’ is not yet a ‘dull boy’)

This is one of the syllabi I’ve composed for myself this summer that touches on several areas of my research (e.g., democracy, law, moral psychology, virtues and vices, emotions, philosophy of mind and mental conflict ….). I’ve read some of these books in whole or part and am reading them again. I limited myself to 25 titles. I thought perhaps a few readers might be interested in this list.

One subject that has perked my interest of late is rhetoric, especially in an Aristotelian sense, both as it bears on democratic communication and discourse and insofar as it remains tethered to ethical or moral, logical and rational norms (hence when its function and appeal is not primarily emotional and when its arguments can be simultaneously sound and persuasive). Democratic rhetoric must be sensitive to the values, principles, and practices of democracy such that it should not be construed solely in instrumentalist terms, even if we remain, rightly, concerned about consequences. Democratic rhetoric can be crafted to suit its intended audience, which is not always “the people” simpliciter, but various “publics,” “groups,” “strata,” “politicians,” “classes,” and so forth. This does not mean it need appeal to or rely on existing (or ‘naked’) preferences or desires, on myopic or narrow self-interests, or on flattering its recipients or hearers (one might, however, allow for or encourage, especially at the beginning of a speech, what Cicero understood as captatio benevolentiae). Contrast this with the earliest forms of rhetoric in democratic Athens, wherein “the ideas and attitudes of the orators must reflect what the majority of their audience was only too glad to hear.” Indeed, inasmuch as it is democratic, it can and should often be (apart from descriptive or explanatory purposes, having to do say, with court rulings, legislation, or policy proposals) challenging or even provocative, motivating individuals and groups to see the proverbial big picture or appreciate the long-term … and so forth and so on (more later).

Finally, myriad and seemingly insuperable problems arise in a world of communication dominated by mass and social media and democratic rhetoric will have to speak to if not aim to solve at least some of these problems. At the very least, it will have to adhere to self-imposed norms and constraints fashioned with reasoned or reasonable and democratic warrant having to do with free speech, the value of which will be better appreciated if not cherished with the sustained and widespread praxis of such democratic rhetoric.

• Aristotle (H.C. Lawson-Tancred, trans.) The Art of Rhetoric (Penguin Books, 1991).
• Aristotle (Roger Crisp, trans. and ed.) Nichomachean Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
• Aristotle (T.A. Sinclair, trans.) The Politics (Penguin Books, revised ed. with bibliography, 1992).
• Balot, Ryan K. Greek Political Thought (Blackwell, 2006).
• Barnes, Jonathan, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle (Cambridge University Press, 1995).
• Cooper, John M. Reason and Emotion: Essays on Ancient Moral Psychology and Ethical Theory (Princeton University Press, 1999).
• Finley, M.I. Democracy Ancient and Modern (Rutgers University Press, revised ed., 1985).
• Gagarin, Michael and David Cohen, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law (Cambridge University Press, 2005).
• Garver, Eugene. Aristotle’s Rhetoric: An Art of Character (University of Chicago Press, 1994).
• Gonzalez, Francisco J. Dialectic and Dialogue: Plato’s Practice of Philosophical Inquiry (Northwestern University Press, 1998).
• Hansen, Mogens Herman (J.A. Crook, trans.) The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes (Blackwell, 1991).
• Kraut, Richard. Socrates and the State (Princeton University Press, 1984).
• Lonsdale, Steven H. Dance and Ritual Play in Greek Religion (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993).
• Nussbaum, Martha C. The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and ethics in Greek tragedy and philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 1986).
• Ober, Josiah. Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric, Ideology, and the Power of the People (Princeton University Press, 1989).
• Ober, Josiah. Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule (Princeton University Press, 1998).
• Ober, Josiah. Democracy and Knowledge: Innovation and Learning in Classical Athens (Princeton University Press, 2008)
• The Collected Dialogues of Plato, including the Letters (Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, eds.) (Princeton University Press, 1961).
• Price, A.W. Mental Conflict (Routledge, 1995).
• Price, A.W. Virtue and Reason in Plato and Aristotle (Oxford University Press, 2011).
• Roberts, J.W. City of Sokrates: An Introduction to Classical Athens (Routledge, 2^nd, 1998).
• Steiner, George. Antigones (Clarendon Press, 1984).
• Vernant, Jean-Pierre (Jante Lloyd, trans.) Myth and Society in Ancient Greece (Zone Books, 1990).
• Vernant, Jean-Pierre (Janet Lloyd with Jeff Fort, trans.) Myth and Thought among the Greeks (Zone Books, 2006).
• Vernant, Jean-Pierre and Pierre Vidal-Naquet (Janet Lloyd, trans.) Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece (Zone Books, 1990).