#  Workshop: Edward Schiappa, with a response from David Mirhady 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **June 19, 2026** 

 12:00PM - 01:00PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Virtual**  



 

 [ Register for the Zoom arrow\_circle\_right ](https://virginia.zoom.us/meeting/register/KfTMuspeRzuLOfkfVTOibA) 

 



 

**Dr. Edward Schiappa**, John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities (MIT), is generously offering us a preview of his current book in progress: *From Logos to Rhētorikē*: *A Lexical History of the Emergence of Rhetoric as a Discipline in Classical Greece*. **Dr. David Mirhady** (Simon Fraser University) will offer a response:

- **Abstract:** *From Logos to Rhētorikē* offers a lexical and conceptual history of how rhetoric emerged as a distinct discipline in classical Greece. Challenging retrospective narratives that project “rhetoric” back onto the fifth century, the book argues that persuasive discourse long preceded the disciplinary abstraction *rhētorikē*, which probably originated with Plato’s *Gorgias*. Adopting a lexical-historical nominalist approach influenced by Havelock, Kuhn, and Moore, the study traces how recurring speech practices gradually acquired names, technical vocabularies, theoretical organization, and institutional form. Through detailed semantic histories of terms related to *logos*, persuasion, genre, argument, arrangement, style, and education, the book reconstructs the competing paradigms of *logos*-education associated with Protagoras, Socrates, Plato, Anaximenes, and Aristotle. It argues that rhetoric was not "invented" suddenly, but disciplined progressively through naming, classification, pedagogical practice, and philosophical systematization, culminating in Aristotle's *Rhetoric*, where *rhētorikē* finally becomes a formally defined *technē*.

Registered participants will receive a confirmation with a link to the PDF chapter. Please write to us if you have any questions!



 

 



 

 

 Share on:- [     Facebook ](#)
- [     Twitter ](#)
- [     Linkedin ](#)
 


 Save: [ Add to calendar calendar\_today ](https://colloquiumforancientrhetoric.scholars.harvard.edu/node/718476/event-feed.ics)  Copy link link