PSYCHAGOGIA: A STUDY IN THE PLATONIC TRADITION OF RHETORIC FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES by John Joseph Jasso B., Kansas State University, 2003 M., Kansas State University, 2007 M., University of Pittsburgh, 2013 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2014 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH KENNETH P. DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by John Joseph Jasso It was defended on April 25, 2014 and approved by Dr. Rita Copeland, Professor, Departments of Classical Studies and English, University of Pennsylvania Dr.
John Lyne, Professor, Department of Communication Dr. Mitchell, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Dissertation Advisor: Dr. John Poulakos, Associate Professor, Department of Communication ii Copyright © by John J. Jasso 2014 iii PSYCHAGOGIA: A STUDY IN THE PLATONIC TRADITION OF RHETORIC FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES John J.
Jasso, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2014 This dissertation is a history of an idea that has endured in rhetorical theory from Plato to Weaver – the idea that rhetoric can lead souls to their own betterment; that is, guide them in an ascent along a metaphysical hierarchy through beauty, goodness, and truth to a fuller participation in being. This is a study of what Plato calls psychagogia. Comprising replicating hierarchies, the Platonic tradition saw intricate connections between cosmology, theology, psychology, and language. At the height of this tradition, St.
Bonaventure notes that rational philosophy is consummated in rhetoric, indicating that such an inquiry transcends the disciplinary sub-field of “the history of rhetoric” and engages much larger issues concerning the nature of language, language’s relationship with human rationality, and its analogy with the divine. Thus, this study maps the structural framework of the Platonic intellectual tradition from antiquity to the Middle Ages in order to identify the conditions necessary for rhetorical activity under a tripartite metaphysics. By comparing the parallel structures inherent in reality, language, and the mind, I contend that rhetoric plays a definitive role for the Platonist in the process of spiritual formation. Indeed, in some cases it represents the only machinery that humanity has to achieve intellectual, spiritual, and societal amelioration.
But reality, knowledge, and language for the Platonist were all living things. So while I do not deny Plato’s rationalism, idealism, or realism in this study, I seek to investigate their interaction with his own skepticism, aestheticism, iv and above all, mysticism. The same is true for Augustine, Bonaventure, and the Platonic tradition as a whole. Such models as the Platonists provide can illustrate how philosophical tensions now thought to be in diametrical opposition can be brought into dialectical synthesis.
The result is a truly organic intellectual framework that informs a rhetorical theory of equal vitality – a tripartite rhetoric, at once rational, spiritual, and emotive, culminating in the soul in a rhetoric of ascent. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE .0 INTRODUCTION: PSYCHAGOGIA AS A RHETORICAL CONCEPT .2 ASSUMPTIONS AND DEFINTIONS .0 METHODOLOGY CONCERNING PLATO AND RHETORIC .1 PLATONIC RHETORIC AND THE TERM RHETORIKE .2 RHETORICAL FETISHISM IN PLATO .3 KEYWORDS AND PATTERNS.4 A PRIMA FACIE RENDERING OF THE PLATONIC PSYCHE .1 The Rational Element .2 The Spirited Element .3 The Appetitive Element .4 Harmony, Justice, and the Whole Soul .0 PRE-PLATONIC PSYCHAGOGIA .1 NASCENT PSYCHAGOGICAL STRUCTURES IN HOMER.1 The Judgment of Paris .2 The Shield of Achilles .3 The Embassy to Achilles .4 Dialogue with Priam .2 LOGOS AND PSYCHE IN HERACLITUS.1 Logos in Heraclitus .2 Psyche in Heraclitus .3 Hints towards Tripartition .1 Tripartition in Psyche .2 Tripartition in Logos.3 LOGOS AND PSYCHE IN GORGIAS .1 Logos in On Not Being or, On Nature .2 Logos and Psyche in the Encomium of Helen .4 THE TERM PSYCHAGOGIA .0 PSYCHAGOGIC RHETORIC IN THE PLATONIC CORPUS .1 PLATO’S GRAMMA OF MOTIVES .2 THE TRIPARTITE LOGOS IN PLATO .1 The Wise Logos .2 The Courageous Logos .1 The Courage to be Wise.2 The Mathematics of Morality .3 The Spirit of Integrity .3 The Temperate Logos .1 The Aristocratic Logos .2 The Timocratic Logos .3 The Oligarchic Logos .4 The Democratic Logos .5 The Tyrannical Logos .4 THE MAP OF THE PSYCHIC JOURNEY .0 THE PERIAGOGIC RHETORIC OF SAINT AUGUSTINE .1 METHODOLOGY CONCERNING PLATO AND AUGUSTINE .1 The Incarnation and Philosophy in Etienne Gilson .2 Rhetoric as Theology in John J.3 The Incarnation as Symbolic Communication in Robert J.4 Un-Critical Reception .2 THE TRANSMISSION OF THE PLATONIC TRADITION .1 The Tripartite Soul in the Tusculan Disputations .2 The Virtues in De Inventione .1 Ascent and Conversion in Plotinus.1 Language, Psychology and Trinitarian Thought .2 Neoplatonic Rhetorical Theory .4 The Cure of Souls .3 THE PLATONIC NATURE OF SAINT AUGUSTINE’S RHETORIC.1 Rhetoric as Love .2 The “Platonic Heresy” .3 The Integrity of Rhetorical Activity .4 Reduction to Invention and Expression .4 SAINT AUGUSTINE’S RHETORIC OF CONVERSION .1 The Psychology of Desire .3 The Psychology of Persuasion and Ascent .4 The Rhetoric of Conversion .0 SAINT BONAVENTURE’S ANAGOGIC THEOLOGY OF LANGUAGE .2 PLATONIC PSYCHAGOGY IN THE MIDDLE AGES .1 Dionysius and the Hierarchy of Macrocosm and Microcosm .2 Hugh of Saint Victor’s Pedagogy of Re-Formation .3 SAINT BONAVENTURE’S TRIVIUM OF ASCENT .1 The Reduction of the Trivium .3 The Consummation of Rational Philosophy .1 FROM HERE TO MODERNITY .2 SOME NEO-MEDIEVAL IMPLICATIONS .2 Moving the Soul. 276 x PREFACE As this project comes to an end, there are a number of people and institutions that I must thank. First, I must recognize the generosity of the University of Pittsburgh, without which such an endeavor would not have been possible.
I am grateful for the chance to begin my doctoral studies as a K. Leroy Irvis Fellow; for the numerous Summer Research Grants; for the resources of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program; for the support of the Provost Development Fund; and for the Dean’s Tuition Scholarship that helped me through my final semester. I must also thank the University of Kansas for access to the Watson Library as I finished writing from afar; as well as their Department of Communication which served as a welcoming home for a displaced scholar. The conversation and camaraderie of David Tell is especially appreciated.
I was humbled to enter my doctoral education with an outstanding group of critical thinkers quickly dubbed the “demon cohort” for their collective wit, audacity, and irreverence. So for the fellowship of Brita Anderson, Josh Beaty, David Landes, Joseph Packer, Thomas Dunn, Heather Liebling, and Candi Carter Olson I am truly thankful. Thanks also to George Gittinger, who was quick to offer assistance by locating materials that I could find nowhere else. In general, I am grateful for all the discourse and aid available from the graduate community at Pitt whose members are, happily, too numerous to list in full.
In many ways, the seeds of this dissertation were first planted during my tenure at Kansas State University. For that, I thank Tim Steffensmeier, Bill Schenck-Hamlin, and Charlie Griffin. xi Indeed, it was in Charlie’s classroom that I first read the Encomium of Helen, the Phaedrus, and On Christian Doctrine. These ideas were further nurtured by many in Pitt’s Department of Philosophy, especially Nicholas Rescher, James Allen, and Jessica Moss.
Though not on my committee, Brent Malin of my own Department of Communication has consistently offered support, instruction, and advice and no acknowledgments would be complete without him. I could not have asked for a more gracious and knowledgeable committee to guide me as I completed both this dissertation and my graduate career. As a friendly scholar and an historian of medieval rhetoric, I knew that Rita Copeland would make a great outside reader for the project. But not until engaging her recent works on Platonism in medieval rhetoric did I realize that her participation was, in fact, essential.
John Lyne brought to the committee and my graduate experience an eclecticism and an eccentricity that outmatched even my own; so that whenever I broached a new topic, however esoteric, he was ready with a myriad of suggestions for how to tackle it. William Fusfield showed me how my historical interests flowed into modernity through Romanticism and Transcendentalism. For introducing me to the figure and works of Orestes Brownson, who makes a cameo at the end of this dissertation, I am forever beholden to him. However, when Dr.
Fusfield could not serve due to illness, Gordon Mitchell stepped in without hesitation. His insightful ability to bring historical rhetoric to bear on contemporary contexts still causes me to ponder about the demarcation of temporal boundaries. Of course, this dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance and support of my mentor and dissertation advisor John Poulakos. While some may think it odd that a Platonist would want to study with a Sophist – let alone that one could do so productively – I could not imagine having completed this dissertation under anyone else, nor would I want to if I could.
xii Poulakos has served as the very example of erudition, reflexivity, and charitableness that this dissertation attempts to theorize. For that, and for his friendship, I am truly thankful. During the past years of study I have been strengthened by the encouragement, prayers, and well-wishes of good friends who also happen to be academics. So I offer a hearty word of thanks to Anthony and Melissa Wachs and their family who have been there from the beginning of this journey, and also to Brian Gilchrist, Brita Anderson, Ethan Stoneman, Read Schuchardt, Brett Robinson, Ben Robertson, Gavin Hurley, Joe Wurtz, and Ed Macierowski.
To Ben Beier, Fr. Nick Blaha, and the students of the Hayden Seminar, a special thanks not only for your friendship and support, but for the opportunity to teach St. Augustine while writing about him. To my family, I owe a debt that I can never repay; were I even to list all that I owe it would far outstrip the pages of this text.
Rather, please let a list of your names, and a partial one at that, represent to any readers the support and love with which I have been blessed. So thank you to my mother Paula, who continues to provide for my emotional and material needs, as well as for those of my own growing family. Thank you to my father Kerry and my siblings Peter and Missy; to my godparents Eva and Anthony, Jr.; to my godchildren Leylah, Steven, Blaize, Roman, Lucia and all my nieces, nephews, and cousins; to Reina, Alice, Robert, and all my aunts and uncles; to my grandparents, especially Mama Fifi, whose prayers can be felt from Heaven, and Papa; to Margie and Steve for their unfailing generosity and to all my in-laws. Finally, no words are enough to convey the gratitude and love I feel for my wife Susan, who sacrificed much comfort and sanity so that I might retain both while I worked.
To her and to our wonderful children who eagerly awaited the completion of this project so that they might have their daddy back – AnnaMarie, Kyrie, Gloria, Michelangelo, and Genevieve – your patience knows no bounds. Above all, for those I have to thank and for that which I am thankful, thanks be to God.0 INTRODUCTION: PSYCHAGOGIA AS A RHETORICAL CONCEPT This dissertation is a history of an idea that has endured in rhetorical theory from Plato to Weaver – the idea that rhetoric can lead souls to their own betterment; that is, guide them in an ascent along a metaphysical hierarchy through beauty, goodness, and truth to a fuller participation in being. In a word, this is a study of psychagogia or ‘soul-leading.’ The term itself is neither innately rhetorical nor innately positive. 1 But Plato’s definition of rhetoric in the Phaedrus as “a way of directing the soul [psychagogia] by means of speech [logon]” (261a) has assured its place in rhetorical history.