Abstract: This paper proposes a new interpretative model to understand classical Greek epideixeis or "public performances" as a cultural phenomenon, rather than as a self-contained genre ( genos epideiktikon ), as in Aristotle's classification. I argue that epideixeis were part of a pervasive and transdisciplinary mode of performance and thought—antilogy, or the uninterrupted delivery of opposed speeches before an audience. Antilogic thought aimed less at the crystallization of authoritative doxai ("doctrines") than at a restless challenge to doxa ("common sense"). This distinctive mode of intellectual inquiry, still largely neglected by scholars, also informed the antagonistic texture of works commonly labeled as treatises (e.g., Gorgias' On Not-Being , Xenophon's Lakedaimoniōn Politeia ).
Davide Napoli (Mon,) studied this question.