Izaguirre
Yoe
Classical Rhetorics
Annotated Bibliography
I. Rhetoric, Ethics, and Politics
Rowland, Robert C. and Deanna F. Womack. “Aristotle’s View of Ethical Rhetoric.” Rhetoric
Society Quarterly 45, no. ½ (Winter – Spring 1985): 13-31,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3885793.
Rowland and Womack describe the ways in which Aristotle’s conception of rhetoric
operates under ethical constraints in the public sphere. The authors demonstrate how Aristotle’s
ethical theory permeates rhetorical practice, particularly as rhetoric should be practiced within
the context of a democratic society. Rowland and Womack, however, are careful to distinguish
between the rhetorical potency and rhetorical product, the former bearing amoral dynamis to
argue both sides of a contested issue whereas the latter as “action” or energeia invites moral
evaluation. For the authors, it is the rhetorical product that can be evaluated for ethicality. Their
distillation of the “Five Presuppositions” of Aristotle’s ethical theory, as discerned through the
Rhetoric, Nicomachean Ethics, and Politics, provides a moral foundation for Aristotle’s rhetoric
as social practice and will supply the student of rhetoric with a heuristic for discerning the ethical
dimensions threading Aristotle’s works.
II. Rhetoric and Politics
Haskins, Ekaterina. “On the Term ‘Dunamis’ in Aristotle’s Definition of Rhetoric.”
Philosophy and Rhetoric 46, no. 2 (2013): 234-240,
Haskins proposes that Aristotle’s use of the term dunamis represents a rhetorical choice
to situate rhetoric as a distinct art divorced from practical oratory. Instead, rhetoric as a dunamis
is a faculty by which rhetorical causes can be discovered without necessarily delving into the
world of praxis or practical matters. For Aristotle, Haskins argues, the realm of the practical
belongs to the politike, which is itself, according to Haskins, an exploration into the most
amenable context for the development of practical virtue. Haskins admits a divergent approach to
Aristotle’s conception of rhetoric as a dunamis, namely and approach that provides an
understanding of Aristotle’s view on the role of politike in shaping practical virtue that
subjugates rhetoric rather than converse. The work supplies a fresh perspective on understanding
Aristotle’s explication of the “ability to discern the available means of persuasion.”
III. Rhetoric and Ethics
Irwin, T.H. “Ethics in the Rhetoric and in the Ethics,” in Essays on Aristotle’s Rhetoric,
edited by Amélie Oksenberg Rorty, 142-74. Berkeley: University of California, 1996.
Irwin draws distinctions between how the Rhetoric and Aristotle’s Ethics approach
ethical qualities or “virtues.” Although Aristotle treats various virtues in both works, he does not
do so with the same end. Irwin observes that the primary concern of the Rhetoric is virtue’s role
in argument construction suitable to the audience. However, in Ethics, the primary concern is the
discovery of the nature and expression of each virtue. Both works detail how commonly held
beliefs resource rhetorical activity and ethical activity, but the difference between them lies in
the argumentative end or lack thereof. Irwin’s argument merits attention, as it attempts to
consider how the purposes of each book display their content differently because of their
apparent function. Irwin’s chapter of the book are excellent resources for exploring Aristotle’s
ethical theory through the lens of (rhetorical) purpose.
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Izaguirre
Yoe
Classical Rhetorics
IV. Rhetoric and Poetics
Kaufmann, Charles. “Poetic as Argument.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 67 (1981): 407-415.
Kaufmann contends for a rhetorical link between Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics. For
the author, poetry and rhetoric share a similar goal: audience affect. The means by which both
disciplines accomplish their respective goals is through argumentation, particularly the
employment of an enthymematic form. During argument, the enthymeme works as a deduction
from the audience’s “common beliefs” to the “rhetor’s” desired outcome. Since both rhetoric and
poetry work to produce judgment from the audience, Kaufmann articulates how the enthymeme
functions in both arts to accomplish each discipline’s ends. This work serves as a validation for
rhetoric’s employment and criticism in other disciplines besides texts of discourses.
V. Rhetorical Criticism
Farrell, T. B. "Sizing Things Up: Colloquial Reflection as Practical Wisdom."
Argumentation 12 (1998): 1-14.
Farrell reconsiders Aristotle's conception of three poetic categories within the function of
rhetoric as "making things matter." He appropriates categories from Poetics and other works
(e.g., De Interpretatione) to demonstrate the ways in which rhetoric can take the vast and
threatening nature of our worlds and invite the audiences to reflect on the meaning and
significance of events. Farrell explicates Aristotle's concepts of contingency, magnitude, and
phronésis, as rhetorically relevant categories that provide the Rhetoric with both logical and
aesthetic components necessary to induce audience participation and recognition. This piece
highlights the ways in the rhetorical critic can fuse Aristotle's thoughts on aesthetics and
dialectics to understand rhetorical enterprises intended to emphasize particularities within
contested situations, and thus, is an excellent resource for how the critic can engage in rhetorical
reflection from an aesthetic perspective.
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