Sophists and Sophistry.....

For ancient Greece, sophistry was an important way to transfer information and ideas. As a practice it reminds me a bit of 'The Society of the Spectacle' that we studied in Visual Rhetoric. Namely, the information being transferred is unclear due to the spectacle made of the delivery. Sophistry seems to capture this kind of spectacle and stretch the truth to the point of deceit. That is not to say that it is without good intention, namely 'truth seeking'. But it seems to have been ripe with propoganda. Sophists, though, are thought more of as bearers of wisdom. In some sense, teachers are perceived to play this role. But, the teachers are the messengers and maybe this isn't the same as the bearer of wisdom. Namely, it is not necessarily the 'truth' that they have sought, just the 'truth' that they have learned. I feel like I am talking in circles here, just like some of the figures we have already studied. But what it has shown me is that there IS purity in trying to figure things out and maybe, just maybe, there isn't always a single right answer. Maybe that is even a good thing because it keeps us wanting to know more. So that one single truth is that there is no one single truth.

It all makes me a bit uneasy and I am much more comfortable 'proving' things. But then Pythagoras kind of messed that up for me now. His universality of numbers, while true, has a big flaw. What is a number without a unit? It has no meaning. Having information about Pythagoras, Plato, Sophistry, Sophists and more presented in the graphic novel was a very helpful way for me to learn about these topics. I have had very limited experience with graphic novels, but am intrigued by their use of visuals to relay what can be extremely complex information. I think that there is a lot of value in presenting information this way and would classify it as an important tool of new media.

All of these topics play well into my idea(s) for a term paper. I am planning on focusing on audience and just as a number is meaningless without a unit, a message is meaningless without an audience. Furthermore, understanding the audience as well as the relevant tools of communication, helps to create a commonplace between the message, messenger and audience.