The Art of Rhetoric. Aristotle
THE ART OF
RHETORIC
Aristotle
CONTENTS
Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from the Collins English Dictionary
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The Importance of Rhetoric
Rhetoric is, in itself, a rather ambiguous term. It is variously described as the art of persuasive, impressive or effective speaking, or orating. To say something rhetorical is thus said for effect rather than to elicit a response, answer or information; hence, the term ‘a rhetorical question’, which is a remark said in the form of a question but not meant as a direct enquiry. A ‘moot point’ is also rhetorical, as it may be an irrelevant remark designed to distract or digress, or it may be an open-ended question, with the answer left open to argument or debate. A rhetorician is someone skilled in their ability to win arguments by virtue of their use of figures or speech, platitudes, hyperbole, statements and compositional techniques, rather than for simply being correct. A simple way of defining rhetoric is to describe it as eloquent expression.
Aristotle’s The Art of Rhetoric dates from the 4th century BC and is widely considered to be the most important treatise on the subject. Aristotle was interested in rhetoric because he lived at a time when convincing people about philosophical ideas required a very persuasive personality. This is largely because science was not an established concept at the time, so people drew no clear distinction between ideas that could be epistemically evidenced and those based on belief. This is illustrated by the fact that matters of the real world were described as natural philosophy, and so were perceived as akin to all other forms of wisdom or knowledge. It was therefore necessary to have great skill at rhetoric in order to have any ideas entered into the public arena for consideration. Even greater rhetoric was then required to have those ideas gain any acceptance. It was no use having good ideas if one lacked rhetorical ability, so Aristotle felt it necessary to write notes of instruction on the matter. According to Aristotelian experts, he probably didn’t write his treatise with the intention of publication, but at a later date someone thought it worth compiling the component essays into a single work.
The first English translation of The Art of Rhetoric came at the turn of the 20th century. Until then, only classical scholars were able to read Aristotle’s words and interpret his thoughts and meaning. Greek and Latin vocabularies are far smaller than English, so interpretation is a significant factor. By definition, English translations of his work are interpretations, too, so this should be borne in mind when reading the work.
Impact on Contemporary Society
One very significant theme is Aristotle’s text is that of judice, or judgement, in the context of law. As such, The Art of Rhetoric is a seminal work in judicial matters. It establishes the basic point that doing right and doing wrong need to be defined and distinguished by rhetoric in order that a fair judgement can be made. In essence, this is the seed of the established protocol of prosecution and defence in the modern court of law, which relies heavily on the rhetorical skills of the parties involved in swaying the jury one way or the other.
In fact, this basic principle forms the backbone of any debate, as it is all about weighing one view against another. In areas where empirical proof is not available, rhetoric plays a vital role in generating partiality or bias in an audience. This is certainly true in matters of a moral or ethical nature, since ethics and morals are human constructs. For example, it is necessary for society to maintain the rule that killing another person is wrong, yet there is no natural law that informs humanity of this. So, having accepted the idea that killing needs to be wrong, it then becomes a matter of judgement as to how wrong it is in different contexts. This is where rhetoric is important, as it has the effect of bringing differing views to the table where there are no absolutes. The degree of wrongdoing may range from accidental killing to self-defence to manslaughter to murder. As the very concept of wrongdoing is a moral construct, the outcome resulting from such rhetoric has consequences for the aim of avoiding further wrongdoing.
In