Isocrates on the Ethics of Authorship

In this essay I argue that Isocrates stands as a major figure in the early history of authorship ethics in the Western world. His writings repeatedly characterize discursive originality as a virtue and discursive unoriginality as a vice, and he defines originality as a competitive enterprise whereby one seizes the opportunity to assert something new and better about something significant. I suggest that Isocrates' own obsession for achieving originality indicates his desire for fame, fortune, and immortality, and I conclude that historians of authorship ethics benefit from being sensitive to the vocabulary used in particular periods and by particular authors.