Description
Book SynopsisThis book explores the conceptual terrain defined by the Greek word eikos: the probable, likely, or reasonable. Ranges from the plausible arguments of courtroom speakers to verisimilitude in art and literature, the likelihood of resemblance in human reproduction, the limits of human knowledge and the possibilities of ethical and political agency.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: eikos in ancient Greek thought Victoria Wohl; 1. Eikos arguments in Athenian forensic oratory Michael Gagarin; 2. Eikos in Plato's Phaedrus Jenny Bryan; 3. Aristotle on the value of 'probability', persuasiveness, and verisimilitude in rhetorical argument James Allen; 4. 'Likely stories' and the political art in Plato's Laws Ryan K. Balot; 5. Open and speak your mind: citizen agency, the likelihood of truth, and democratic knowledge in archaic and classical Greece Vincent Farenga; 6. Counterfactual history and Thucydides Robert Tordoff; 7. Homer's Achaean wall and the hypothetical past Karen Bassi; 8. Play of the improbable: Euripides' unlikely Helen Victoria Wohl; 9. Revision in Greek literary papyri Sean Gurd; 10. Likeness and likelihood in classical Greek art Verity Platt; 11. Why doesn't my baby look like me? Likeness and likelihood in ancient theories of reproduction Daryn Lehoux; 12. Galen on the chances of life Brooke Holmes; 13. Afterword Catherine Gallagher.
