Doxa

The Greek “Doxa” meant “common belief or popular opinion.” In rhetoric it is a tool for the formation of argument using common opinions (Oxford Dictionary). However, it is important to understand that between the third and first centuries, with the Biblical translation from Hebrew to Greek, the scholars translated the Hebrew “Kabot” as the Greek “Doxa” and thus gave the word a new meaning: “glory” (Kais al-Kalby, 622).
In Jarrat’s book, Rereading the Sophists, the Sophists used doxa to persuade audiences in different regions of Greece. “Of special interest to the sophists was the range of group behaviors they observed in traveling through the Greek city-states (Guthrie 55). They understood that any discourse seeking to effect action or shape knowledge must take into account those differences. Not only was it essential to judge the circumstances obtaining at the moment of an oration, its kairos, but even more essential was the orators/alien’s understanding of the local nomoi; community-specific customs and laws (Jarrat 11). In layman’s terms, doxa can be seen by orators as relating to the audience. The sophists adapted their message to their audience and were more persuasive because of it.
The rhetorical implication of “doxa” is our study of intercultural communication. Culture is defined as all the behaviors, ways of life, arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Different definitions of culture also reflect differing theories for understanding (Oxford Dictionary). By studying societies differnces in beliefs, a rhetor can adjust the message to best fit the audience.
I can most relate the persuasiveness the Sophists must have gotten by implementing doxa into their arguments by comparing it to traveling abroad. If you go to South America and speak to a shop keeper in English using traditional North American beliefs and opinons, the price of the item you are purchasing will be significantly higher than that if you were to speak using the native language, beliefs, and opinons. The Sophists understood how to implement beliefs and opitions into their arguments, and to be secsesful with different audiences, you must too.

(WC 348)


Sources:
Oxford English Dictionary
Perseus.tufts.edu
Isocrates I
Rereading the Sophists
Kais al-Kalby - http://muhammad.net/biblelp/biblelp12.html