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News

News: March/April 2009

Rhetoric teaching makes comeback • Galileo’s finger on display • French philo wins million-pound prize — News reports by Sue Roberts

MA in Sophistry?

The University of Central Lancashire has just announced a new MA course in a very old subject – Rhetoric. The School for Journalism, Media & Communication hopes its new course will run from September 2009. It will give students the opportunity to study the history and theory of rhetoric, the practice of discourse or ‘speaking well’ – and the chance to master that practise themselves.

The organisers claim that students of philosophy will find much to interest them in the course. Historically, however, philosophy has had a rather conflicted relationship with rhetoric, which was the main interest of those Ancient Greek teachers called Sophists.

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