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Rhetoric (Aristotle)

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Aristotle, copy of a sculpture by Lysippos.

Aristotle's Rhetoric is an ancient Greek treatise on the art of persuasion, dating from fifth century BCE. In Greek, it is titled Ἡ Τέχνη Ῥητορική , transliterated as Ars Rhetorica. In English, its title varies: typically it is titled the Rhetoric, the Art of Rhetoric, or a Treatise on Rhetoric.

Aristotle is generally credited with developing the seminal system of rhetoric that "thereafter served as its touchstone" [1], influencing the development of rhetorical theory from ancient through modern times. The Rhetoric is regarded by most rhetoricians as "the most important single work on persuasion ever written." [2] Gross & Walzer concur, indicating that, just as Whitehead considered all philosophy a footnote to Plato, "all subsequent rhetorical theory is but a series of responses to issues raised" by Aristotle's Rhetoric. [3]Philosophers, on the other hand, have tended to ignore the Rhetoric, claiming that it has had "marginal influence" [4]. This is largely a reflection of disciplinary divisions, dating back to Peter Ramus's attacks on Aristotlean rhetoric in the late 1500s [5] and continuing to the present.[6]

Like the other works of Aristotle that have survived from antiquity, the Rhetoric seems not to have been intended for publication, being instead a collection of his students' note from his lectures. The treatise shows the development of Aristotle's thought through two different periods while he was in Athens, and illustrates Aristotle's expansion of the study of rhetoric beyond Plato's early criticism of it in the Gorgias(ca. 386 BCE) as immoral, dangerous, and unworthy of serious study.[7][8] Plato's final dialogue on rhetoric, the Phaedrus (ca.370 BCE), offered a more moderate view of rhetoric, acknowledging its value in the hands of a true philosopher (the "midwife of the soul") for "winning the soul through discourse." This dialogue offered Aristotle, first a student and then a teacher at Plato's Academy, a more positive starting point for the development of rhetoric as an art worthy of systematic, scientific study.


History and Context

The Rhetoric was developed by Aristotle during two periods when he was in Athens, the first between 367 to 347 BCE (when he was seconded to Plato in the Academy), and the second between 335 to 322 BCE (when he was running his own school, the Lyceum).[9][10]

The study of rhetoric was contested in classical Greece, with the Sophists on one side and Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle on the other. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle saw rhetoric and poetry as tools that were too often used to manipulate others by trading on emotion and neglecting facts.[11] They particularly accused the sophists, including Gorgias and Isocrates, of this. Plato, in particular, laid the blame for the arrest and death of Socrates at the feet of sophistical rhetoric. In stark contrast to the emotional rhetoric and poetry of the sophists was a rhetoric grounded in philosophy and the pursuit of knowledge or enlightenment. One of the most important contributions of Aristotle's approach was that he identified rhetoric as one of the three key elements of philosophy, along with logic and dialectic. Indeed, the first line of the Rhetoric is "Rhetoric is the counterpoint of Dialectic (1.1.1--1354:1)."[12] Logic, to Aristotle, is the branch of philosophy concerned with reasoning to reach scientific certainty while dialectic and rhetoric are concerned with probability and thus are the branches of philosophy best suited to human affairs. [13] Dialectic is a tool for philosophical debate; it is a means for skilled audiences to test probable knowledge in order to learn. Rhetoric is a tool for practical debate; it is a means for persuading a general audience using probable knowledge to resolve practical issues. Dialectic and rhetoric together create a partnership for a system of persuasion based on knowledge instead of manipulation of emotion. [14]

English translation

Most English readers have relied on four translations. The first was by Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb, published in 1909.[15] The second, by John H. Freese, was published as a part of the Loeb Classical Library in 1924.[16] The third, by Lane Cooper, was published in 1932.[17]The third, by W. Rhys Roberts, was originally published in 1924 (although not widely available) and reprinted in 1954.[18]

The first major translation in almost a century was published in 1991 by George A. Kennedy, a leading classicist and rhetorician. [19] Kennedy's edition of the Rhetoric was published in 1991. It is notable for the clarity of its translation and for its extensive commentary, notes, and references to modern scholarship on Aristotle and the Rhetoric, making it generally regarded today as the standard scholarly resource on the Rhetoric. [20]

Neo-Aristotelean Theory

Rhetorical theory and criticism in the first half of the 20th century was dominated by neo-Aristotelian criticism, the tenets of which were grounded in the Rhetoric and summed up most clearly in 1925 by Herbert Wichelns. [21] The dominance of neo-Aristotelian criticism was "virtually unchallenged until the 1960s" and even now is considered not only as one of many approaches to criticism, but as fundamental for understanding other theoretical and critical approaches as they "developed largely in response to [its] strengths and weaknesses."[22]

Overview

The Rhetoric consists of three books. Book I offers a general overview, presenting the purposes of rhetoric and a working definition; it also offers a detailed discussion of the major contexts and types of rhetoric. Book II discusses in detail the three means of persuasion that an orator must rely on: those grounded in credibility (ethos), in the emotions and psychology of the audience (pathos), and in patterns of reasoning (logos). Book III introduces the elements of style (word choice, metaphor, and sentence structure) and arrangement (organization). Some attention is paid to delivery, but generally the reader is referred to the Poetics for more information in that area.[23]


Notes

  1. ^ Bizzell, P. & Bruce Herzberg. (2000). The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present. NY: Bedford/St. Martin's. p.3.
  2. ^ Golden, James L., Goodwin F. Berquist, William E. Coleman, Ruth Golden, & J.Michael Sproule (eds.). (2007). The rhetoric of Western thought: From the Mediterranean world to the global setting, 9th ed. Dubuque, IA (USA): p.67.
  3. ^ Gross, Alan G. & Arthur E. Walzer. (2000). Rereading Aristotle's Rhetoric. Carbondale, IL (USA): Southern Illinois University Press: p.ix. Gross & Walzer further say that "There is no comparable situation in any other discipline: No other discipline would claim that a single ancient text so usefully informs current deliberations on practice and theory."(p.x).
  4. ^ Garver,E. (1994). Aristotle's Rhetoric: An Art of Character. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p.4
  5. ^ Murphy, John J. (1983). "Introduction, " Peter Ramus, Arguments in Rhetoric against Quintilian. C.Newlands (trans.), J.J.Murphy (ed.). DeKalb IL (USA): Univ. of Illinois Press.
  6. ^ Gross & Walzer,2000, p.ix.
  7. ^ Griswold, Charles. "Plato on Rhetoric and Poetry", Stanfield Encyclopedia of Philosophy, December 22, 2003.
  8. ^ Gorgias, 465a, Perseus Project.
  9. ^ Bizzell & Herzberg, 2000.
  10. ^ Corbett, 1984.
  11. ^ Garver, Eugene. "Rhetoric," Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  12. ^ W. Rhys Roberts (trans.) (1924/1954). The Rhetoric of Aristotle. Originally published Oxford, England: Clarendon Press. E-book@Adelaide (2007). University of Adelaide, South Australia. Rhetoric
  13. ^ Corbett, Edward P.J. (1984). 'Introduction' to Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics (trans. W. Rhys Roberts & Ingram Bywater). NY: Modern Library. p.vi-vii.
  14. ^ Corbett, 1984.
  15. ^ Jebb, Richard C. (trans.) 1909. The Rhetoric of Aristotle. Cambridge: University Press.
  16. ^ Freese, John H.(trans.) (1924). Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric. With Greek text. Cambridge: Loeb Classical Library/Harvard University Press.
  17. ^ Cooper, Lane (trans). (1932/1960). The Rhetoric of Aristotle. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
  18. ^ Roberts, W.Rhys (trans). 1924. Rhetorica: The Works of Aristotle, Vol.11. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Rpt. 1954 in Aristotle, "Rhetoric" and "Poetics" (trans. Roberts & Ingram Bywater). New York: Modern Library. The 1954 edition is widely considered the most readable of these translations and is widely available online.
  19. ^ Kennedy, George A. (trans./ed.). 1991. Aristotle 'On Rhetoric': A Theory of Civic Discourse. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  20. ^ van Noorden, Sally. "A translation of Aristotle's Rhetoric," The Classical Review, 1993, 43.2, pp. 251-252.
  21. ^ Wichelns, H. (1925/1958). 'The Literary Criticism of Oratory' in D.C.Bryant (ed.) The Rhetorical Idiom: Essays in Rhetoric, Oratory, Language, and Drama. D.C.Bryant (ed.). Rpt. Ithaca NY (USA): Cornell University Press. p.5-42.
  22. ^ Foss, Sonja J. (1989). Rhetorical criticism: Exploration and practice. Prospect Heights IL (USA): Waveland Press. p.71 & 75.
  23. ^ Corbett, 1984, pp.v-xxvi.

Further reading

  • Translation of Rhetoric by W. Rhys Roberts
  • Perseus Project Rh.1.1.1
  • Aristotle's Rhetoric at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Bizzell, P. & Bruce Herzberg. (2000). The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present. NY: Bedford/St. Martin's. p.3.
  • Garver, Eugene. Aristotle's Rhetoric: An Art of Character. The University of Chicago Press, 1995.
  • Golden, James L., Goodwin F. Berquist, William E. Coleman, Ruth Golden, & J.Michael Sproule (eds.). (2007). The rhetoric of Western thought: From the Mediterranean world to the global setting, 9th ed. Dubuque, IA (USA).
  • Kennedy, George A. Aristotle, on Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. NY/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
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