Isocrates
436 BCE – 338 BCE Greek rhetorician, teacher
Athenian teacher whose school of rhetoric shaped the classical ideal of liberal education.
- Religion
- Ancient Greek polytheism.
- Affiliations
- Founded an influential school of rhetoric in Athens.
Isocrates founded a school in Athens around 393 BC that trained students in rhetoric and public affairs. He promoted a broad practical education aimed at producing effective and responsible citizens, an ideal he called philosophia. His model of liberal learning influenced Roman education and later European humanism.