Eloquence and wisdom: was Socrates right to separate philosophy from rhetoric, or was that the ruin of both?

Marcus Tullius Cicero, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

The position in brief

Wisdom without eloquence is useless to states, and eloquence without wisdom is dangerous to them. Socrates separated the tongue from the brain, and the result was philosophers who cannot persuade anyone of anything and speakers with nothing worth saying.1234

Sources

  1. He, who, by the testimony of all the learned, and the judgment of all Greece, was the first of all men as well in wisdom and penetration, grace and refinement, as in eloquence, variety, and copiousness of language on whatever subject he took in hand, deprived of their common name those who handled, treated, and gave instruction in those matters which are the objects of our present inquiry, when they were previously…
    On Oratory and Orators, p. 209
  2. " Who said that he had been heard by him when a young man for many days at Athens (where he was) now affected with old age." ^ Ex communi sapientiumjugo. I read sapientice with Ellendt. It is a comparison, as he observes, of Socrates to a hill.
    On Oratory and Orators, p. 212
  3. By which answer his judges were so exasperated that they condemned the most innocent of men to death. But had he been acquitted (which, indeed, though it is of no concern to us, yet I could wish to have been the case, because of the greatness of his genius), how could we have patience with those philosophers who now, though C. LV.] ON THE CHARACTER OF THE ORATOR.
    On Oratory and Orators, p. 71
  4. And if we are inclined to consider the origin of this thing which is called eloquence, whether it be a study, or an art, or some peculiar sort of training or some faculty given us by nature, we shall find that it has arisen from most honourable causes, and that it proceeds on the most excellent principles. II.
    Orations Vol 4

Where the argument is made

  • De Oratore III.56-73 (the charge against Socrates), I.5-20 (the orator's required knowledge), Orator 12-19, De Inventione I.1-5 (the early formulation)

How the argument was received

The founding thesis of the rhetorical works and the one I never modify.