








































© Equinox Publishing Ltd. 2008, Unit 6, The Village, 101 Amies Street, London SW11 2JW

[Expositions 2.2 (2008) 131–132] Expositions (print) ISSN 1747-5368  
doi:10.1558/expo.v2i2.131 Expositions (online) ISSN 1747-5376 

Editors’ Introduction

JohN A. DooDy, KIm PAffENroth, AND PEtEr BUSch

Welcome to the second open issue of Expositions. This fall we feature articles 
and interdisciplinary exchanges on a variety of enduring and controversial 
topics, ranging from rhetoric to tragedy, from the translation of sacred texts 
to the use of drugs in education.  

our “overheard in the Academy” tackles the issue of cognitive Enhance-
ment. It is easy for academics like us to condemn athletes for using per-
formance-enhancing drugs: how terrible to exploit one’s body for the sake 
of defeating competitors in the arena!  Does it change anything, however, if 
the drug enhances the performance of the mind? What if a pill can make us 
smart enough to finish our Ph. D., get tenure, or write the definitive book 
on Plato?   

The first of our full-length articles, by Bryan-Paul frost, breaks new ground 
in the interpretation of Aristotle by reading his Rhetoric not merely as a philo-
sophic treatise whose subject matter happens to be rhetoric, but as a rhe-
torical document written for practical purposes.  how does Aristotle want to 
move his readers, and why?

our second article, by Lydia moland, is an ambitious interpretation of The 
Human Stain that sees it as more than just another book on race in America; 
instead, moland places roth’s novel in the wider tradition and shows how its 
insights into race help readers better understand the nature of tragedy.

We conclude with a second interdisciplinary exchange, this one consisting 
of several reviews of robert Alter’s landmark translations of the hebrew Bi-
ble. It is especially valuable to review these texts from multiple perspectives:  
as Alter’s project is at once theological, literary, and historical, so are our 
commentators.

Our Next Issue
The interdisciplinary cauldron is already bubbling, and we are toiling and 
troubling over the Spring 2009 issue of Expositions.  Devoted to the theme of 
Enchantment, issue 3.1 will feature several new “Notes, Insights, and flash-
es.”  Don’t miss it.




