Doxa

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Doxa (δόξα) is a Greek word meaning common belief or popular opinion, from which are derived the modern terms of orthodoxy and heterodoxy. Used by the Greek rhetoricians as a tool for the formation of argument by using common opinions, the doxa was often manipulated by sophists to persuade the people, leading to Plato's condemnation of Athenian democracy.

[edit] Doxa, a philosopheme

Henceforth, Plato opposed knowledge to doxa, which would lead to the classical opposition of error to truth, so pregnant in Western philosophy that it may be called a "philosopheme". Thus, error is considered in Occident as pure negativity, which can take various forms, among whom the form of illusion (which can't be dissipated, as did Kant show). As such, doxa may ironically be defined as the "philosopher's sin". In classical rhetoric, it is contrasted with episteme. However, Aristotle used the term endoxa (commonly held beliefs accepted by the wise and by elder rhetors) to acknowledge the beliefs of the city. Endoxa is a more stable belief than doxa, because it has been "tested" in argumentative struggles in the Polis by prior interlocutors. The use of endoxa in the Stagirite's Organon can be found in Aristotle's Topics and Rhetoric.

[edit] Vox populi, synonym or reverse of doxa?

The Latin expression Vox populi may be compared to doxa, as it means popular opinion. However, in the common sentence Vox populi vox Dei, instead of being a synonym of error, it is reversed into a synonym of truth. Indeed, it may approximatively be translated into: "God speaks through the clamor of the masses". It may be argued that republicanism or even democracy must be confident in the power of the people to escape doxa through education in order to have a sense; however, the concept of civic virtue complicates things, as being knowledgeable doesn't necessarily means being good - an argument often overlooked by advocates of technocracy or other such enlightened despotism. Of course, Plato would completely reject this argumentation, as he identifies learning to the treading of an ethical path, as did Foucault, among many others, show: in ancient Greece, knowledge implies a conversion of the being, whereas "pure knowledge", disjoined from "Good", is the product of latter inventions.

Examples of elements of the doxa of our society include

The sun rises in the East and sets in the West every day
Jews have been and will be wronged continually throughout time.