Episode 22 · 2020-06-07 · 53:33 · Original in Finnish
Antiquity and Negotiating Power | Juhana Torkki | Neuvottelija 22
Originally published as “Antiikki ja Neuvotteluvalta | Juhana Torkki | neuvottelija 22”
Author and translator Juhana Torkki and his co-author Sami Miettinen trace, in Turku, the arc from a doctoral thesis on the rhetoric of the apostle Paul through the books Puhevalta and Uusi neuvotteluvalta to Finnish translations of Seneca and Plutarch. The episode explains why an ancient letter required the whole thought to be finished before writing began and how slowness deepens thinking. The discussion contrasts Plutarch's practical techniques for governing the mind with Stoic determinism and the doctrine of the perfect sage, and asks what the patron-client relationship and etymological discoveries reveal about our own time. It closes on Quintilian's claim that a good speaker must first be a good person, and why workplace communication is needlessly abstract.
Watch and listen
Key moments
- 00:00 — Turku Plutarch and staying in your home town
- 02:30 — The labour of writing on papyrus and ancient audiobooks
- 05:00 — Why slow formats deepen a thought
- 07:30 — The thesis on Paul at the Areopagus and the arc of themes
- 10:00 — Bill Clinton Cicero's structure and a speech in the Finnish parliament
- 12:30 — Michelle Obama Greta Thunberg and new rhetorical examples
- 15:00 — The four levers and the negotiator's inner world
- 17:30 — Seneca and Plutarch as texts on the philosophy of living
- 20:00 — The professional hides emotion; patron and client
- 22:30 — Etymology apatheia and concursus as cleansers of terms
- 25:00 — Plutarch as positive psychology and Stoic determinism
- 27:30 — The doctrine of the perfect sage and Plutarch's gentler path
- 30:00 — Slaves in ancient texts and the wrestling analogy of equal resistance
- 32:30 — Ahtisaari on judging an oppressor people and layered meaning
- 35:00 — The black and white of online argument versus dialectic
- 37:30 — Speaking negotiating and leading as three core skills
- 40:00 — Quintilian and the education of an orator from infancy
- 42:30 — Vir bonus the good speaker must first be a good person
- 45:00 — The absence of ethos and hiding behind a pseudonym
- 47:30 — Ancient dialogue versus abstract workplace communication
- 50:00 — The arc of Uusi neuvotteluvalta as a growth story
- 52:30 — Translating Quintilian and the limits of translation
Summary
Author and translator Juhana Torkki and his co-author Sami Miettinen trace, in Turku, the arc from a doctoral thesis on the rhetoric of the apostle Paul through the books Puhevalta and Uusi neuvotteluvalta to Finnish translations of Seneca and Plutarch. The episode explains why an ancient letter required the whole thought to be finished before writing began and how slowness deepens thinking. The discussion contrasts Plutarch’s practical techniques for governing the mind with Stoic determinism and the doctrine of the perfect sage, and asks what the patron-client relationship and etymological discoveries reveal about our own time. It closes on Quintilian’s claim that a good speaker must first be a good person, and why workplace communication is needlessly abstract.
Chapters
- 00:00 — Turku Plutarch and staying in your home town
- 02:30 — The labour of writing on papyrus and ancient audiobooks
- 05:00 — Why slow formats deepen a thought
- 07:30 — The thesis on Paul at the Areopagus and the arc of themes
- 10:00 — Bill Clinton Cicero’s structure and a speech in the Finnish parliament
- 12:30 — Michelle Obama Greta Thunberg and new rhetorical examples
- 15:00 — The four levers and the negotiator’s inner world
- 17:30 — Seneca and Plutarch as texts on the philosophy of living
- 20:00 — The professional hides emotion; patron and client
- 22:30 — Etymology apatheia and concursus as cleansers of terms
- 25:00 — Plutarch as positive psychology and Stoic determinism
- 27:30 — The doctrine of the perfect sage and Plutarch’s gentler path
- 30:00 — Slaves in ancient texts and the wrestling analogy of equal resistance
- 32:30 — Ahtisaari on judging an oppressor people and layered meaning
- 35:00 — The black and white of online argument versus dialectic
- 37:30 — Speaking negotiating and leading as three core skills
- 40:00 — Quintilian and the education of an orator from infancy
- 42:30 — Vir bonus the good speaker must first be a good person
- 45:00 — The absence of ethos and hiding behind a pseudonym
- 47:30 — Ancient dialogue versus abstract workplace communication
- 50:00 — The arc of Uusi neuvotteluvalta as a growth story
- 52:30 — Translating Quintilian and the limits of translation
Watch
The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: Antiikki ja Neuvotteluvalta | Juhana Torkki | neuvottelija 22. A Finnish edition of this episode is published at www.neuvottelija.fi.
People and topics
Guests: Juhana Torkki
Topics: Negotiation