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RHETORIC (Gr. psroperctj TEXvq, the a...

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 235 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RHETORIC (Gr. psroperctj TEXvq, the See also:art of the orator) , the art of using See also:language in such a way as to produce a desired impression upon the hearer or reader. The See also:object is strictly persuasion rather than intellectual approval or conviction; hence the See also:term, with its See also:adjective " rhetorical, is commonly used for a speech or See also:writing in which See also:matter is subservient to See also:form or display. So in See also:grammar, a" rhetorical question " is one which is asked not for the purpose of obtaining an See also:answer, but simply for dramatic effect. The See also:power of eloquent speech is recognized in the earliest extant writings. See also:Homer describes See also:Achilles as a " See also:speaker of words, as well as a doer of deeds ": See also:Nestor, See also:Menelaus and See also:Odysseus are all orators as well as states-men and soldiers. Again the brilliant eloquence of See also:Pericles is the theme of See also:Aristophanes and See also:Eupolis. Naturally the See also:influence wielded by the See also:great orators led to an investigation of the characteristics of successful rhetoric, and especially from the See also:time of See also:Aristotle the technique of the art ranked among the recognized branches of learning. A lost See also:work of Aristotle is quoted by See also:Diogenes Laertius (viii. S7) as saying that See also:Empedocles " invented " (EUpeiv) rhetoric; See also:Zeno, See also:dialectic (i.e. See also:logic, the art of making a logical See also:argument, apart from the See also:style). This is certainly not to be understood as meaning that Empedocles composed the first " art " of rhetoric. It is rather to be explained by Aristotle's own remark, cited by Laertius from another lost See also:treatise, that Empedocles was " a See also:master of expression and skilled in the use of See also:metaphor "—qualities which may have found See also:scope in his See also:political See also:oratory, when, after the fall of Thrasydaeus in 472 B.c:; he opposed the restoration of a tyranny at See also:Agrigentum. The founder of rhetoric as an art was Corax of See also:Syracuse See also:Early (c.

466 B.C.). In 466 a See also:

democracy was established See also:Greek in Syracuse. One of the immediate consequences rhetoric was a See also:mass of litigation on claims to See also:property, urged —Gorax. by democratic exiles who had been dispossessed by See also:Thrasybulus, See also:Hiero or See also:Gelo. Such claims, going many years back, would often require that a complicated See also:series of details should be stated and arranged. It would also, in many instances,' lack documentary support, and rely chiefly on inferential reasoning. Hence the need of professional See also:advice. The facts known as to the " art " of Corax perfectly agree with these conditions. He gave rules for arrangement, dividing the speech into five parts,—proem, narrative, arguments (&ywves), subsidiary remarks (irap4avns) and peroration. Next he illustrated the topic of See also:general See also:probability (EIKOS), The showing its two-edged use: e.g., if a puny See also:man is topic accused of assaulting a stronger, he can say, " Is it of€LK6s. likely that I should have attacked him?" If See also:vice versa, the strong man can argue, " Is it likely that I should have committed an See also:assault where the presumption was sure to be against me?" This topic of EIKOS, in its manifold forms, was in fact the great weapon of the earliest Greek rhetoric. It was further See also:developed by Tisias, the See also:pupil of Corax, as we see from See also:Plato's See also:Phaedrus, in an " art " of rhetoric Tisias. which antiquity possessed, but of which we know little else. Aristotle gives the eIKOS a See also:place among the topics of the fallacious See also:enthymeme which he enumerates in Rhet. ii. 24, remarking that it was the very essence of the treatise of Corax; he points out the See also:fallacy of omitting to distinguish between abstract and particular probability, quoting the verses of See also:Agatho,—" Perhaps one might See also:call this very thing a probability, that many improbable things will happen to men." See also:Gorgias (q.v.) Gorgfas. of See also:Leontini captivated the Athenians in 427 B.C. by his oratory (Diod. xii.

53), which, so far as we can See also:

judge, was characterized by florid See also:antithesis, expressed in See also:short jerky sentences. But he has no definite place in the development of rhetoric as a See also:system. It is doubtful whether he See also:left a written " art "; and his mode of teaching was based on learning prepared passages by See also:heart,—diction (Xi ts), not invention or arrangement, being his great object. The first extant Greek author who combined the theory with the practice of rhetoric is the Athenian See also:Antiphon (q.v.), the first of the See also:Attic orators, and the earliest representative Aatl- at See also:Athens of a new profession created by the new phon. art of rhetoric—that of the Ao'Y os, the writer of M'Pa~ forensic speeches for other men to speak in See also:court. His speeches show the art of rhetoric in its transition from the technical to the See also:practical See also:stage, from the school to the See also:law court and the See also:assembly. The organic lines of the rhetorical pleader's thought stand out in bold See also:relief, and we are enabled to form a clear notion of the logographer's method. We find a striking See also:illustration of the fact that the topic of " probability " is the See also:staple of this early forensic rhetoric. Viewed generally, the See also:works of Antiphon are of great See also:interest for the See also:history of Attic See also:prose, as marking how far it had then been influenced by a theory of style. The See also:movement of Antiphon's prose has a certain See also:grave dignity, " impressing by its See also:weight and grandeur," as a Greek critic in the Augustan See also:age says, " not charming by its See also:life and flow." Verbal antithesis is used, not in a diffuse or florid way, but with a certain sledge-See also:hammer force, as sometimes in the speeches of See also:Thucydides. The imagery, too, though bold, is not florid. The structure of the periods is still crude; and the general effect of the whole, though often powerful and impressive, is somewhat rigid. Antiphon represents what was afterwards named the " austere " or " rugged " style (auorripa apuovia), See also:Lysias was the See also:model of an See also:artistic and versatile simplicity.

But while Antiphon has a place in the history of rhetoric as an art, Lysias, with his more attractive gifts, belongs only to the history of oratory. See also:

Ancient writers quote an " art " of rhetoric by Isocrates, but its authenticity was questioned. It is certain, however, that Isocrates taught the art as such. He is said to have Isocrates. defined rhetoric " as the See also:science of persuasion " (Sext. Empir. Adv. Mathem.ii. § 62, p. 301 seq.). Many of his particular precepts, both on arrangement and on diction, are cited, but they do not give a See also:complete view of his method. The 4xXo ro¢fa (" theory of culture ") which Isocrates expounds in his discourses Against the See also:Sophists and on the Antidosis, was in fact rhetoric applied to politics. First came technical expositions : the pupil was introduced to all the artificial resources which prose See also:composition employs (sets i5Eas as-6(ms See also:air o X6yos TuyXavei Xpwµevos, Antid.

§ 183). The same term (i5Eat) is also used by Isocrates in a narrower sense, with reference to the " figures " of rhetoric, properly called crxilµaTa (Panath. § 2); sometimes, again, in a sense still more general, to the several branches or styles of See also:

literary composition (Antid. § R1). When the technical elements of the subject had been learned, the pupil was required to apply abstract rules in actual composition, and his See also:essay was revised by the master. Isocrates was unquestionably successful in forming speakers and writers. His school was famous during a See also:period of some fifty years (390 to 340 B.C.). Among the statesmen whom it trained were See also:Timotheus, Leodamas of Acharnae, See also:Lycurgus and Hyperides; among the philosophers or rhetoricians were See also:Speusippus, Plato's successor in the See also:Academy, and See also:Isaeus; among the historians, See also:Ephorus and See also:Theopompus. See also:Cicero and through him all subsequent oratory owed much to the ample prose of the Isocratean school. In the See also:person of Isocrates the art of rhetoric is thus thoroughly established, not merely as a technical method, but also as a practical discipline of life. If Plato's mildly ironical reference in the See also:Euthydemus to a critic "on the borderland between See also:philosophy and statesmanship " was meant, as is probable, for Isocrates, at least there was a wide difference between the measure of See also:acceptance accorded to the earlier Sophists, such as See also:Protagoras, and the influence which the school of Isocrates exerted through the men whom it had trained. Rhetoric had won its place ineducation.

It kept that place through varying fortunes to the fall of the See also:

Roman See also:empire, and resumed it, for a while, at the revival of learning. Plato in the Gorgias and the Phaedrus satirized the See also:ordinary textbooks of rhetoric, and himself gave directions for a higher See also:standard of work; but the detailed study of the art Arts- begins with Aristotle. Aristotle's Rhetoric belongs to toile's the See also:generation after Isocrates, having been composed "Rhe. (but see ARISTOTLE) between 330 and 322 B.C. As ton ~~ controversial allusions sometimes hint it holds Isocrates for one of the foremost exponents of the subject. From a purely literary point of view Aristotle's Rhetoric (with the partial exception of See also:book iii.) is one of the driest works in the See also:world. From the See also:historical or scientific point of view it is one of the most interesting. If we would seize the true significance of the treatise it is better to compare rhetoric with grammar than with its obvious analogue, logic. A method of grammar was the conception of the Alexandrian age, which had lying before it the standard masterpieces of Greek literature, and deduced the " rules " of grammar from the actual practice of the best writers. Aristotle in the latter years of the 4th See also:century B.C. held the same position relatively to the monuments of Greek oratory which the Alexandrian methodizers of grammar held relatively to Greek literature at large. Abundant material See also:lay before him, illustrating how speakers had been able to persuade the See also:reason or to move the feelings. He therefore sought thence to deduce rules and so construct a true art.

Aristotle's practical purpose was undoubtedly real. If we are to make persuasive speakers, he believed, this is the only See also:

sound way to set about it. But the enduring interest of his Rhetoric is mainly retrospective. It attracts us as a feat in See also:analysis by an acute mind—a feat highly characteristic of that mind itself, and at the same time strikingly illustrative of the See also:field over which the materials have been gathered. The Rhetoric is divided into three books. It deals in great detail with the minutiae of the rhetorical See also:craft. Book i. discusses the nature and object of rhetoric. The means of persuasion (rriorets) are classified into " inartificial " (tirexvoc), i.e. the facts of the See also:case See also:external to the art, documents, See also:laws, depositions,—and " artificial " (4vrexvoi), the latter subdivided into logical (the popular See also:syllogism or " enthymeme," the " example," &c.), ethical, and emotional. Aristotle next deals with the " topics " (TOrroc), i.e. the commonplaces of rhetoric, general or particular arguments which the rhetorician must have ready for immediate use. Rhetoric is then broadly divided into •—(1) deliberative (uv ovXevrLKi), concerned with exhortation or dissuasion, and with future time, its end (r Xos) being the See also:advantage or detriment of the persons addressed; (2) forensic (&Kavuoi), concerned with See also:accusation and See also:defence, and with time past, its standard being See also:justice; (3) epideictic, the ornamental rhetoric of display, concerned with praise and blame, usually with the See also:present time, its standard being See also:honour and shame. Each of these kinds is discussed, and the book ends with a brief analysis of the " inartificial proofs." In book ii. Aristotle returns to the " artificial " proofs—those which rhetoric itself provides.

The " logical" See also:

proof having been discussed in book i., he turns to the " ethical." He shows how the speaker may so indicate his own See also:character and the goodness of his See also:motive as to prepossess the See also:audience in his favour, and proceeds to furnish materials to this end. The " emotional " proof is then discussed, and an analysis is given of the emotions on which the speaker may See also:play. A See also:consideration follows of the " universal commonplaces (Kou'oi Term) which are suitable to all subjects. The book ends with an appendix dealing with the " example " (rrap6Sevypa), the general moral sentiments (7k-Spat) and the enthymeme. In book iii. Aristotle considers expression (MMErs), including the art of delivery (urrbKpeots), and arrangement (See also:rat&s). Composition, the use of prose See also:rhythm, the periodic style (the "periodic style, Kasarspa(iji vrt, being contrasted with the " See also:running (apostles)) are all analysed, and the types of style literary (ypadiuo) and oral (&ywwrc,o) are differentiated. Under " arrangement " he concludes with the parts of a speech, proem, narrative, proofs and See also:epilogue. It is necessary briefly to consider Aristotle's general view of rhetoric as set forth in book i. Rhetoric is properly an art. This is the proposition from which Aristotle sets out. It is so because when a speaker persuades, it is possible to find out why he succeeds in doing so.

Rhetoric is, in fact, the popular See also:

branch of logic. Hitherto, Aristotle says, the essence of rhetoric has been neglected for the accidents. Writers on rhetoric have hitherto concerned themselves mainly with " the exciting of See also:prejudice, of pity, of anger, and such-like emotions of the soul." All this is very well, but " it has nothing to do with the matter in See also:hand; it has regard to the judge." The true aim should be to prove your point, or seem to prove it. Here we may interpolate a comment which has a general bearing on Aristotle's Rhetoric. It is quite true that, if we start from the conception of rhetoric as a branch of logic, the phantom of logic in rhetoric claims See also:precedence over appeals to See also:passion. But Aristotle does not sufficiently regard the question—What, as a matter of experience, is most persuasive? Logic may be more persuasive with the more select hearers of rhetoric; but rhetoric is for the many, and with the many appeals to passion will sometimes, perhaps usually, be more effective than syllogism. No formulation of rhetoric can correspond with fact which does not leave it absolutely to the See also:genius of the speaker whether reasoning (or its phantom) is to be what Aristotle calls it, the " See also:body of proof " (ewµa 7rlQTEWS), or whether the stress of persuading effort should not be rather addressed to the emotions of the hearers. But we can entirely agree with Aristotle in his next remark, which is historical in its nature. The deliberative branch of rhetoric had hitherto been postponed, he observes, to the forensic. We have, in fact, already seen that the very origin of rhetoric in Hellas was forensic. The relative subordination of deliberative rhetoric, however unscientific, had thus been human.

Aristotle's next statement, that the master of logic will be the master of rhetoric, is a truism if we concede the essential primacy of the logical See also:

element in rhetoric. Otherwise it is a See also:paradox; and it is not in See also:accord with experience, which teaches that speakers incapable of showing even the See also:ghost of an argument have sometimes been the most completely successful in carrying great audiences along with them. Aristotle never assumes that the hearers of his rhetorician are as of xaptevres, the cultivated few; on the other hand, he is See also:apt to assume tacitly—and here his individual See also:bent comes out—that these hearers are not the great surging See also:crowd, the 6XXos, but a body of persons with a decided, though imperfectly developed, preference for sound logic. What is the use of an art of rhetoric? It is fourfold, Aristotle replies. Rhetoric is useful, first of all, because truth and justice uses of are naturally stronger than their opposites. When rhetoric. awards are not duly given, truth and justice must have been worsted by their own See also:fault. This is See also:worth correcting. Rhetoric is then (I) corrective. Next, it is (2) instructive, as a popular vehicle of persuasion for persons who could not be reached by the severer methods of strict logic. Then it is (3) suggestive. Logic and rhetoric are the two impartial arts; that is to say, it is a matter of indifference to them, as arts, whether the conclusion which they draw in any given case is affirmative or negative.

Suppose that I am going to plead a cause, and have a sincere conviction that I am on the right See also:

side. The art of rhetoric will suggest to me what might be urged on the other side; and this will give me a stronger grasp of the whole situation. Lastly, rhetoric is (4) defensive. See also:Mental effort is more distinctive of man than bodily effort; and " it would be absurd that, while incapacity for See also:physical self-defence is a reproach, incapacity for mental defence should be no reproach." Rhetoric, then, is corrective, instructive, suggestive, defensive. But what if it be urged that this art may be abused? The objection, Aristotle answers, applies to all See also:good things, except virtue, and especially to the most useful things. Men may abuse strength, See also:health, See also:wealth, generalship. The See also:function of the medical art is not necessarily to cure, but to make such progress towards a cure as each case may admit. Similarly it would be inaccurate to say that Rhetoric the function of rhetoric was to persuade. Rather defined. must rhetoric be defined as " the See also:faculty of discerning in every case the available means of persuasion." Suppose that among these means of persuasion is some See also:process of reasoning which the rhetorician himself knows to be unsound. That belongs to the See also:province of rhetoric all the same. In relation to logic, a man is called a " sophist " with regard to his moral purpose (wpoaipecns), i.e. if he knowingly used a fallacious syllogism.

But rhetoric takes no See also:

account of the moral purpose. It takes account simply of the faculty (abeaµts)—the faculty of discovering any means of persuasion.235 Aristotle's Rhetoric is incomparably the most scientific work which exists on the subject. It may also be regarded as having determined the See also:main lines on which the subject was The treated by nearly all subsequent writers. The extant treatise on rhetoric (also by Aristotle?) entitled 'I'nropuu) ,rpos 'AAEtavbpee, formerly ascribed to Anaximenes of See also:Lampsacus, was written at latest by 340 B.C. The See also:introductory See also:letter prefixed to it is probably a See also:late See also:forgery.

End of Article: RHETORIC (Gr. psroperctj TEXvq, the art of the orator)

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