Defining Rhetoric PDF

# Defining Rhetoric ## For Plato Rhetoric is the art of winning the soul by discourse. (function) ## For George Kennedy Rhetoric is the energy inherent in emotion and thought, transmitted through a system of signs, including language, to others to influence their decisions or actions. (component...

# Defining Rhetoric ## For Plato Rhetoric is the art of winning the soul by discourse. (function) ## For George Kennedy Rhetoric is the energy inherent in emotion and thought, transmitted through a system of signs, including language, to others to influence their decisions or actions. (components) ## For Quintillian Rhetoric is a good citizen speaking well. (ethics) # Characteristics of Rhetorical Discourse 1. It is planned. 2. It is adapted to an audience. 3. It reveals human motives. 4. It is responsive to a situation. * situated * dialogic 5. It is persuasion-seeking. * argument * appeal * arrangement * aesthetic # Social Functions of The Art of Rhetoric ## It Tests Ideas. It Discovers Facts. Oh, no, said defenders of the performance, you critics are misinterpreting what was presented. This was not a parody of the Last Supper. This was not designed to mock Christianity. Rather, it was a depiction of a feast of Dionysus the god of wine and festivity. The display was referencing not Christianity but Greek mythology. In French, that is "La Cène sur la scene sur la seine." But isn't "cène" just the word for "supper"? Can't that refer to a pagan supper presided over by Dionysus? No. According to the Collins French Dictionary, "la cène,” i.e., The Supper, means "Holy Communion," and capitalized, as here, means "The Last Supper." ## It Assists Advocacy. It Shapes Knowledge. ## It Distributes Power. It Builds Community. # Classical Rhetoric vs Modern Rhetoric | Classical | Modern | | :------------------------------------------------ | :------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Individuals as rational animals living in a world with stable values. | Individuals as communal animals living in an aleatoric universe. | | Logical proofs | Psychological proofs | | Emphasis: Persuasion | Emphasis: Communication | | Speaker - Audience Relationship: Manipulative and unidirectional | Speaker - Audience Relationship: Cooperative and dialogic | | Defined Epistemology | Undiscoverable Reality | | Mode: Focus on Orality | Mode: Texts and Ethnography. | # Key Similarities Between Classical and Modern Rhetoric 1. Both view people as language-using animals who unite reason and emotion in discourse with one another. 2. Both provide a method by which rhetor and audience create knowledge by building on shared understanding or prior knowledge. 3. Both unite theory and practice in the communicative arts. # Research in Rhetoric ## Lasswell's Model of Communication 1. **WHO** control analysis 2. **SAYS WHAT** content analysis 3. **IN WHICH CHANNEL** medium analysis 4. **TO WHOM** audience analysis 5. **WITH WHAT EFFECT** effect analysis ## Lloyd Bitzer's Rhetorical Situation 1. **Rhetorical Exigence**: * urgency that prompts the discourse. * relevance of an issue or problem 2. **Rhetorical Audience**: * specific audience addressed by the discourse. * public/s who can be persuaded and can effect change. 3. **Rhetorical Constraints**: * artistic proofs (e.g., language) that can be controlled by the rhetor. * inartistic proofs (e.g., facts) the rhetor may select and curate to strengthen an argument. # Rhetoric and the Sophists ## Why Sophists Were Controversial * Context: from aristocracy to democracy * Motive: fame and fortune * Style: dialectic and epideixis ## Famous Sophists * Gorgias and the antithesis * Protagoras and the antilogike * Isocrates and the morally oriented rhetorical training # Plato's Gorgias * Plato's debate with Gorgias: Nature of rhetoric * Socrates' debate with Callicles: Beautiful and just life ## The Arts of Health | | Body | Soul | | :-------- | :-------- | :------- | | Maintain | Gymnastics | Legislative | | Restore | Medicine | Justice | ## The Sham Arts of Health | | Body | Soul | | :-------- | :-------- | :-------- | | Maintain | Makeup | Sophistic | | Restore | Cookery | Rhetoric | # Plato's Phaedrus 1. **Psychagogia** leading the soul rather than influencing it; order in the soul leads to order in the state. 2. **The Myth of the Charioteer** wisdom governing nobility and appetite. 3. **Rhetoric as Techne** knowledge of truth, knowledge of soul, structural organization and technique. A simple soul requires simple speech. A complex soul requires complex speech. # Aristotle's Rhetoric ## Dialectic vs Rhetoric | Dialectic | Rhetoric | | :--------------------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Private affair | Public event | | Concerned with general topics | Concerned with specific topics | | Proceeds by question and answer | Proceeds in continuous form | | Qualified endoxa | Popular endoxa | | Non-argumentative methods are absent | Non-argumentative methods are used. | ## Species of Speech * **Forensic** just/unjust * **Epidiectic** honorable/shameful * **Deliberative** advantageous/harmful ## Means of Persuasion * **Ethos (of the speaker)** phronesis, arete, eunoia * **Logos (of the message)** paradeigma, enthymema * **Pathos (of the audience)** expressive language, judgement ## The Enthymeme "He would not take the crown. Therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious." _(Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)_ | | | | :----------- | :----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Premise 1** | He would not take the crown. | | **Unstated Premise** | _(People who want the crown are ambitious.)_ | | **Conclusion** | He was not ambitious. | ## Aristotle's Topics *Definition, Division, Circumstance, Comparison, Consequence, Testimony* "Last December, the Philippine National Police announced that in the drug war nearly 4,000 people were killed in police operations and that more than 16,000 other deaths were "under investigation." That's more than 20,000 people killed in a little more than a year and 4 months. Contrast that with 3,240 people killed during Martial Law from 1972 to 1981." # Rhetoric in Ancient Rome ## As a System of Education * Greek-based rhetorical studies. * Rhetoric as means of achieving personal success in politics. * Focus on oral expression and eloquence. ## Rhetoricians as Political Activists * Philosopher-Rhetoricians and the moral function of rhetoric. * Cicero's death as grim reminder to the opponents of the emperor. # Cicero's De Inventione ## Inventio The discovery of valid or seemingly valid arguments. * **The Stasis System** 1. issue of fact 2. issue of definition 3. issue of quality 4. issue of procedure * **The Topical Systems** 1. attributes of the person 2. attributes of the act ## Dispositio The distribution of arguments thus discovered in the proper order. 1. **Exordium** Introduction 2. **Narratio** Statements of facts 3. **Partitio** Division 4. **Confirmatio** proof 5. **Refutatio** Limitations 6. **Peroratio** Conclusion ## Elocutio The fitting of the proper language to the invented material. 1. **Grand Style (Supra)** to move 2. **Middle Style (Mediocre)** to please 3. **Plain style (Humile)** to teach ## Pronuntiatio The control of voice and body in a manner suitable to the dignity of the subject matter and the style. ## Memoriae The firm mental grasp of matter and words. # Cicero's De Inventione: The Roman Theory of Exordium 1. **Principium (Direct)** * a. honestum * b. obscurum * c. anceps 2. **Insinuatio (Indirect)** * d. admirabile * e. humile # Cicero's De Inventione: Four Loci to Secure the Goodwill of the Judges 1. **Ab Nostra Persona** highlighting the acts, services, and misfortunes of the client. 2. **Ab Iudicum Persona** appealing to the jurors by praising their ability to see beyond prejudice. 3. **Ab Inimocorum Persona** destroying the credibility of the opponents. 4. **A Causa** turning to prejudice surrounding the case. # Cicero's De Oratore * **Perfectus Orator** * **Sensus Communis** * **Animorum Motus** # Quintillian's Institutio Oratoria ## Questions 1. Indefinite. 2. Definite. ## Bases 1. Existence. 2. Definition. 3. Quality. ## Proof 1. Eyewitness. 2. General agreement. 3. Legal issues. 4. Agreed upon proofs by both parties. ## Loci 1. Ante rem 2. In re 3. Circa rem 4 Post rem Rhetoric is the art of a good citizen speaking well. The orator must argue from expediency or advantage on behalf of what is honorable or morally right. # Rhetoric in Christian Europe ## The Fall of Rome * Destruction of libraries and burning of books. * Shaping classical works to fit Christian culture. * Scholasticism as an intellectual movement. * The Art of Poetry. * The Art of Letter Writing. * The Art of Preaching. ## The Rise of Christianity * Robert of Basevom's _Forma Praedicandi_ (The Form of Preaching) treats preaching as moral persuasion more than theological investigation. * Teaching the way Jesus taught: * Promises (for agreeable audiences). * Threats (for stubborn listeners). * Examples. * Reason. # St. Augustine's Sermons ## Analogy * **Sermon 9** Life is like a road on which everybody travels, and that the Word of God is your adversary...because it commands things against the grain which you don't do. * **Sermon 61** Every fruit, every grain, every kind of corn, every tree, has its own proper worm. There's one worm for apples, another for pears, another for beans, another for wheat. The worm in riches is pride. ## Repetition * **Sermon 96** The world is great, but greater is the one who made the world. The world is beautiful, but more beautiful still the one who made the world. The world is alluring, but much more pleasing is the one who made the world. * **Sermon 132** You go out, he sees you; you come in, he sees you. The lamp's lit, he sees you; the lamp's put out, he sees you. You go into your bedroom, he sees you; you turn things over in your mind, he sees you. Fear him, him whose whole concern is to see you, and at least out of fear, be chaste. ## Antithesis * **Sermon 207** And all this to feed our hunger, water our drought, comfort our infirmity, extinguish our iniquity, kindle our charity. What greater mercy, than for the creator to be created...the one who exalts to be humbled, the one who raises up to be slain. * **Sermon 239** He lay there, and reigned; he was in the manger, and held the universe together; he was nursed by his mother, and worshipped by the nations; nursed by his mother, and announced by angels; nursed by his mother, and proclaimed as a shining star. Such his wealth, such his poverty; wealth, to get you created; poverty, to get you restored. # St. Augustine's De Doctrina Christiana | **Book** | **Content** | | :-------- | :------------------------------------------- | | **Book 1** | Signs of realities | | **Book 2** | Words as conventional signs | | **Book 3** | Problems with ambiguities | | **Book 4** | Use of eloquentia in Christian rhetoric | | | Modus Inveniendi (means of discovery) | | | Modus Proferendi (means of expression) | By learning the _res_ (eloquence of truths), the _verba_ (eloquence of words) is also learned. Rhetoric is secondary; truth is primary. ## The Duties of the Church and the Appropriate Style for Each 1. **They must of course be instructed before they can be moved.** 2. **Pleasing the audience was viewed as secondary to teaching and persuading the audience of divine truths.** 3. **True rhetoric culminates in silence, in which the mind is in immediate contact with reality.** _(Listening to the voice of the inner teacher)_ ## Natural Signs versus Conventional Signs Signs can be discovered and used but not invented. # **St. Augustine's De Doctrina Christiana: The Two Classifications of Exegesis ** 1. **Signa Propria** * Genealogy of Jesus * Emmanuel (God with us) * Golgotha (Place of skulls) 2. **Signa Translata** * Trinitarian Exemplarism: Holy Trinity, Crucifixion, Good Samaritan * Meaning of Numbers: 40 days/nights fasting, forgive 70 times 7. * Figurative Language: parables (mustard seed, the lost coin) # Bishop Socrates Villegas on the Parable of the Weeds 24 Jesus told them another parable: _"The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 "The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' 28 "'An enemy did this,' he replied. "The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?' 29 "'No, he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn."_ # Exegesis and Contemporary PH Society *Prompt: How is this passage relevant to the Filipino youth? What issues can be confronted with the help of this text? Which type of exegesis can be used to fulfill the mandate of the church considering the target audience?* While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." _(Matthew 9:10-13 NIV)_ # St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica ## Five Ways to Prove the Existence of God 1. ARGUMENT FROM MOTION 2. ARGUMENT FROM CAUSATION 3. ARGUMENT FROM CONTINGENCY 4. ARGUMENT FROM PERFECTION 5. ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN ## Can a Believer Be a Philosopher? * Order of Determination * Order of Demonstration ## The Two Sources of Knowledge * Senses. * What organizes the sensations. ## The Two Faculties * Faculty of common sense * Faculty of imagination ## The Two Additional Powers * Estimative power * Memorative power ## Four Entailments of Passionate Hatred 1. Hatred is natural and cannot be intrinsically evil. 2. Hatred is not a form of anger (but hatred can arise from anger and envy). 3. Love must precede and cause hatred. 4. It is impossible for an effect (hatred) to be stronger than its cause (love). # Rhetoric and the Italian Humanism ## Key Figures * **George of Trebizond** * Reunification of Greek and Latin works * **Lorenzo Valla** * Attacked scholasticism and believed orators treated questions of ethics better than philosophers. * **Desiderius Erasmus** * Wrote _De Copia_ (An Abundance of Style) that had 150 editions and offered 200 ways of saying the same thing, which schools used to train students. ## Key Figures * **Christine de Pisan** * Identified the power of language as a key to women's advancement; wrote The Book of the City of Ladies. * **Francesco Petrarca / Petrarch** * Paved the way for the [letter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_(literature)) to become one of the most favored literary genres of the Renaissance. * Advocated the literae humanae and vita activa. * **Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494)** * Maintained that our power to choose and create civilization is a direct consequence of our linguistic capacity. ## Key Events * **The Great Debate: Res vs Verba** * Which is more important: the substance one's arguments (res) or the words in which that matter was advanced (verba). * **Vita Activa** * Belief that one owed a debt to one's city or nation. * **Studia Humanitatis / Humanistic Studies** * Studies deemed important to the development of a free and active human mind: rhetoric, poetics, ethics, and politics. * **Uomo Universale / The Universal Man** * The Orator or Master of Rhetoric fulfilled this idea in moral, political, literary, and philosophical terms. # Peter Ramus as Educator ## The Ramistic Classroom * Procedure is divided into two: 1. **Explicatio or Explanation** * a. communicandi - conversation and recitation * b. exercendi - imitation and disputation 2. **Usus or Practice** * a. analysis - analyzing an existing work. * b. genesis - composing one's own. ## The Ramistic Pedagogy * Rhetoric involves only elocutio and actio. Logic covers inventio and dispositio. Ethics covers morality and virtue. * Minimum Theory. Maximum Example. # Peter Ramus' Dialecticae Institutiones ## The Ramistic Art of Rhetoric and Logic * A logical cause, determining the scope of the matter. * A practical end, limiting the material. * A formal principle of the imitation of nature, determining the way in which the material is to be presented. * An immediate historical cause, which motivated the conception and execution. ## Ramus' Method * **T** Topic * **DP** Discussion Point * **E** Example # For a Man's Labor Is to Invent That Which He Sought or Propounded; or to Judge That which is Invented or to Retain Which Is Judged, or to Deliver Over That Which Is Retained. # Francis Bacon's The Advancement of Learning ## The Four Branches of Logic 1. **Inquiry and Invention** * Preparation (research) * Suggestion (direction) 2. **Examination or Judgement** * Evaluation of Knowledge * Induction and Syllogism 3. **Custody or Memory** * Prenotion (parameters) * Emblem (imagery) 4. **Tradition or Delivery** * Organ * Method * Illustration ## The Three Faculties of the Mind * **Reason** thus the need to study Philosophy - to see regularities, to analyze, to generalize - _e.g._ Infrastructures mean progress. * **Memory** thus the need to study History - storehouse of experienced events and material facts - _e.g._ Heart Center, Lung Center, NKTI, CCP, LRT1 * **Imagination** thus the need to study Poesy - appreciation of fiction - _e.g._ Martial Law as Golden Age # Francis Bacon's Novum Organum ## Four Classes of Idols | **Idol** | **Description** | | :-------- | :----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Tribe** | Idola Tribus - prejudices particular to mankind. | | **Cave** | Idola Specus - prejudices particular to the individual. | | **Market Place** | Idola Fori - prejudices caused by words and meanings. | | **Theater** | Idola Theatri - prejudices taught by dogma or schools of thought. | # Rhetoric and the Consumption of Discourse ## Intellectual Movements * **Giovanni Batista Vico** and the Ingenium * **Thomas Sheridan ** and the Elocutionary Movement. * **Hugh Blair** and the Belletristic Movement. # Rhetoric: Aesthetic, Taste ## Pierre Bourdieu's Theory of Capital and Class Distinction Important Note: Bourdieu (1930-2002) was a sociologist who DID NOT live through the Enlightenment Period but whose body of work will help explain the concepts of Aesthetic and Taste in relation to Rhetoric. **Keywords for Discussion:** * High Art and Popular Culture. * The Three Forms of Capital: * Economic (Money, Property) * Social (Family, Peers) * Cultural (Knowledge, Skills) * Habitus # Lord Kames' Elements of Criticism ## Part 1: Discussion of Human Nature Two internal senses of man because of the innate sense of beauty and deformity: 1. Moral sense - judge actions (good or bad) 2. Sense of taste - judge objects (beautiful or ugly). ## Part 2: Human Nature and the Fine Arts **A. Beauty of Language** Appropriateness of the Level of Language: Humble sentiments in high sounding words are disagreeable because of the discordant mixture of feelings; so too are elevated sentiments in low words. "My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations." _(John Green, TFIOS)_ "What is grief if not love persevering?" _(Vision. Wanda Vision)_ **B. Language of Passion** *Perspicuity/Diction:* Words must be chosen that are clear and related to their referents and with regard to syntax, words must be placed in the same order as the parts of whatever they signify. "You are an angel, but I am not your heaven." _(Rizal's response to a lover)_ **C. Comparisons** *Imagery:* The most natural means to force of thought and expression; the mind's propensity for forming similar emotions from the effects of unlike causes; This serves a an introduction to the section on Figures. **D. Figures** *Personification and Apostrophe:* * Agitation (of referring to things unreal) *Hyperbole:* * Surprise (about something being too much or too little) *Metaphor:* * Gratification (in finding resemblances. # George Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric ## Two Varieties of Evidence 1. **Intuitive Evidence** brings immediate assent. * a. self-evident mathematical axioms. * b. consciousness or immediate acquiescence to date. * c. common sense. 2. **Deductive Evidence** follows from a reasoning process. * a. scientific/demonstrative. * b. moral * experience * analogy * testimony ## Campbell's Views on Human Nature * Man is limited in learning by their "accustomed to" "trains of reasoning." * Man learns best when there is reason for knowing: there is gratification to be realized. * Man knows only in terms of his existing body of knowledge. ## The Four Ends of Rhetoric * **Instruct:** Enlighten the Understanding. * **Entertain:** Please the Imagination. * **Elicit Emotion:** Move the Passions. * **Induce Action:** Influence the Will.