Lefevre Platonic Invention Notes: Feb 2009

LeFevre, Karen Burke

Invention as a Social Act

Southern Illinois University Press

Carbondale, 1987

Conference on College Composition and Communication

Chapter 2: A Platonic View of Rhetorical Invention

10-11 Platonic view of individual in pursuit of truth

11 Comp/rhetorical invention founded on view that an individual can locate truth

“Invention, according to this view, occurs largely thorugh introspective self-

examination.”

Through self-examination, we find the structures within ourselves (cough

cough).

“Thus, inviduals come to know not by creating something new but by

recollecting.”

12 Thus invention is a private activity; it is the individual’s discovery of their own

feelings and reality

12 “Here I am speaking, however, not only of what Plato said, but of what has been
made of what Plato said. The persisting emphasis in Western thought on the
concept ofindividual apprehension of truth—a conceppt traditionally credited to
Plato—may be to a large degree responsible for a longstanding view of invention as
radically individualistic.”

12-13 individualistic nature of comp assignments, grades essays; built on the

assumption of individual development

14 invention as individualistic: various theories presented

Writer moves from within themselves out to the rest of the world

15 Reasons why comp favors individualist view/Platonic view of invention

16-17 influence of literary studies; New Criticism; regarding writing without

actual context
 Lefevre Platonic Invention Notes: Feb 2009
17-18 Romantic tradition: inspired writer; emphasis on the individual and
internal inspiration

19 Capitlaism, Individualism, and Invention: culture and lifestyles based upon

the individuals accomplishing goals in contrast to Medieval notions of authorship
(i.e. not)

20 printing helped literacy and potential the social nature of invention,

however it also helped to concretize authorship and gave a way of ascribing
ownership/control of a text to a specific individual

21 we tend to give credit to one person, normally a man, for discovering an

idea instead of noting all the different people who were involved in the process and
laid the foundations for all of the work, learning, research, etc., upon which the
perosn finally made their discovery

22 key summary paragraph at the end of this page:

In short, platonic view fits well with western, capitalist, invidualistic thought
and therefore comp often keeps the individual as the unit of focus or study

22- Strengths & Weakness of Platonic view

23 places emphasis of research and writing on individuals, not contexts or

groups.

23-24 Cites Bizzell’s notions of inner directed and outer directed

writing/purposes

Social writing/invention is more akin to outer directed writing

24 “Platonic invention is a closed, one-way system.”

25 “A Platonic view abstracts the writer from society.”

26 “A Platonic view assumes and promotes the concept of the atomistic self as
inventor.”

29 “A Platonic view fails to acknowledge that invention is collaborative.”

30-31 traditional overlooking or ignoring of female contributions to the

writing/invention process

32 discussion of how Platonic view may result in antagonism between English and
other departments
 Lefevre Platonic Invention Notes: Feb 2009
Other genres assume English faculty seek to have students “express
themselves” while many instructors have different ideas

Over simplified dichotomy of expressive vs. communicative writing

32 conclusion: Platonic view valuable because it recognizes role of invention as an

integral part of writing and influenced writers to see that they have internal
resources

It limits understanding by seeing invention as a closed system, abstracted

form society, and it ignores the collaborative process