Corax the Sophist
In antiquity, the sophists were people who were very influential to public speaking, relevant even in today's day and age. The term "sophist" comes from the Greek sophos which means wisdom. This being stated, a sophist was a person who used and taught wise things (Reinard). A sophist by the name of Corax made many contributions to public speaking which are quite useful to us today. Corax was a sophist who appeared at the beginning of ancient history when there were land disputes in ancient Greece which also led to legal disputes. "Land disputes in ancient Greece were often murky, the records disputed, the facts hard to determine" (Osborn 5). Corax examined the fact that certainty is hard to establish in disputes, and therefore "speakers must seek to establish probabilities and to reconstruct plausible accounts of reality" (Osborn 5) which would help to administer the truth. Corax "invented" the study of rhetorical speaking and defined it as the "craftsman of persuasion" (Reinard). The name "Corax" in Greek means crow (korax) which suggests that he must have suffered from "bad puns" throughout his life. In fact, Corax accused his student, Tisias, of not paying for his instruction in public speaking and brought charges
Corax gave us the revelation that "reality is often the projection of our own interpretations, expectations, and fantasies" (Osborn 6). President Bush may not be president, we may not be driving the cars that we are driving, we may not be eating the food that we eat, and the list goes on. He used a technique of "reverse probability argument" where the words and actions of a situation could be turned around to acknowledge both sides of the situation (Spatharas 2). Without this organization (introduction, argument of proof, and conclusion) of our speeches, the deliveries made probably would not flow as well and follow a specific regimen as they do under these guidelines. The four essential parts were: the introduction, narration, argument, and conclusion or peroration. Corax and his student, Tisias, produced many "handbooks of rhetoric" which contained excellent speeches and provided models rather than sheer instructions. The "art of rhetoric" that Corax introduced has, to this very day, served us much purpose. Corax introduced a technique that has influenced great aspects of our lives. All in all, things could be very different. Persuasive speeches were obviously his specialty and he excelled in the effectiveness of which a persuasive speech can be. His influence becomes more relevant as each day passes and as society becomes more and more developed. Many of the handbooks were made up of illustrative examples. Obviously, Corax has led to many great contributions of public speaking which, as previously noted, we use even today. This was not Corax's only major contribution to public speaking. Corax applied some specifics to this technique and without these specifics, the persuasion used today may still not be as effective if the details were never introduced.
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