4. “the faculty of observing in any given case the the available means of persuasion.” –Aristotle
“the art of speaking well, not about this or that, but about all subjects….invention, arrangement,
and memory belong to dialectic, and only style and delivery to rhetoric.” --Peter Ramus
“an art which leads the soul by means of words, not only in law courts and the various other
public assemblages but in private companies as well.” –Plato
“a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols.” -
Kenneth Burke
“a mode of altering reality, not by the direct application of energy to objects, but by the creation of
discourse which changes reality through the mediation of thought and action.” Lloyd Bitzer
“in every society the production of discourse is at once controlled, selected, organized, and
redistributed by a certain number of procedures whose role is to ward off the powers and
dangers, to gain mastery over its chance events, to evade its ponderous, formidable
materiality.…discourse is the power which is to be seized.” -Foucault
some definitions of rhetoric:
5. Some big questions of rhetorical study:
• what makes language or other means of
communication persuasive?
• what are some strategies of effective
communication?
• what is the relation between language and
knowledge?
• how do beliefs come to be formed?
• why do people change their minds?
• why are things this way instead of that way?
8. Sicily, 5th century BCE – traditionally
credited as birthplace of sophistic
rhetoric. Ultimate judgment of case
brought against Tisias by Corax: “A
bad egg from a bad crow.”
(Probably apocryphal)
origins of rhetoric in the
West: Corax & Tisias
9. Sophists: itinerant teachers of rhetoric (for pay)
Human knowledge relies on perception
and is flawed: “Man is the measure of all
things; of the things which are, that they
are, and of the things which are not, that
they are not.” (Protagoras)
Absolute truth is unavailable, but
probable knowledge can be discovered
and refined.
14. “Rescued” rhetoric
from anti-Platonic
attacks (sorta) – in the
end domesticated it by
reducing it to a system
and subordinating it to
dialectic (philosophy).
Aristotle
Classical rhetoric
Roman rhetorician (106-
43 BCE): expanded on
Aristotle’s system.
Exemplary orator and
stylist.
Cicero
(35-96 BCE). Ideal
rhetor is “good man
speaking well” -
Plato’s commitment
to virtue with
Isocratean value of
public service
Quintilian
15. Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE)
Translated classical rhetoric
(Cicero’s) into the language
and rituals of the church:
rhetoric was the “art of
Christian teaching and
persuasion with words.” For
the next 1000 years or so,
secular/political rhetoric
languished.
18. Renaissance (14th c)
Revival of interest in rhetoric via
new interest in aesthetics and style,
concept of sprezzatura .
Development of rhetorical figures.
Major figures: Castiglione (The
Book of the Courtier)
19. Peter Ramus (16th c)
Sought logically perfect
statements, consistent with
divine revelation. Rhetoric is
confined to style, memory,
and delivery.
20. Rise of scientific thought
in the 17th century
(continued into
Enlightenment): New
knowledge comes from
inductive (scientific)
inquiry, rhetoric is
confined to recovery
work. Language is
unreliable and gets in
the way of truth.
Preference for “plain
speech” and avoidance
of fallacies. Rhetoric
treated with suspicion.
17th - 18th c. Enlightenment (uh-oh, rhetoric)
21. 19th c. rhetoric: psychology vs. public elocution
Faculty psychology
(Alexander Bain): universal
humanistic principles mean
that all audiences are the
same. Development of the
“modes” of composition:
exposition, description,
narrative, argument
(EDNA). Contrasted with
increasingly diverse public
audiences and speakers.
22. 20th c: Revival of rhetoric
Kenneth Burke, the “new rhetorics.” Poststructuralism. Language
and rhetoric are epistemic (constitutive of knowledge). Audiences are
not universal. Rhetoric Society of America formed in 1968. First PhD
programs in rhetoric formed in 1980s.
