Aristotle
– Thinking about
Rhetoric
Aristotle: His Life
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“The Stagerite” (394-322 BC)
Father--Doctor
At 17 to Athens to study with Plato (20yrs)
After Plato’s Death leaves--marine biology
Peripatetic school in Athens’ Lyceum
Married at 37 to 18 yr old women
A Son (Nichomachean Ethic)
Aristotle on Rhetoric
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Middle Ground between Sophists and Plato
Between Circumstances and Idealism
Sophists’ audience=the possible
Plato’s audience=the certain (the soul or
gods)
• Aristotle’s audience=the probable
Three views of Rhetorical Reality
“The Umpires as Rhetors”
• “I calls ‘um as they is.” Who?
• “I calls ‘um as I sees ‘um.” Who?
• “They ain’t nothing til I calls um.” Who?
In other words . . .
• Plato--Reality is there and communication
reflects reality.
• Aristotle--Reality is probably there and
communication is a relationship with reality.
• Gorgias--Reality is not there and
communication creates reality.
Rhetoric, its own Identity
• A counterpart to dialectic not cookery
• Not moral but pragmatic and scientific
• A study of all the available means of
persuasion
• Functions to discover in each context the
best way to by successful
Rhetoric’s Usefulness
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Prevents fraud and injustice
Aids instruction
Makes us argue both sides
Helps in self-defense
The Enthymeme
• The center of Aristotle's Theory
• Two part definition:
– Truncated syllogism
– Shared values
The Syllogism--Logic
• #1
– All men are mortal
– Socrates is a man
– Therefore, Socrates is mortal
• #2
–?
Enthymeme-truncated
• So . . .
– Socrates is a man
– Therefore, he is mortal
• Missing element?
Another truncation
• In a speech on human demographics, I state:
– “When deer and elk populations over breed
they evidently die from starvation and/or
disease.”
• Unstated assumption?
Enthymeme--shared values
• What the speaker and audience share
• “held in the mind” (Herrick, p. 81)
• The argument is completed by the rhetor
and the audience at the same time.
• Clinton’s “State of the Union,” Social
Security and the baby boomers.
Two Kinds of Proofs
• Artistic
– Logos--logical arguments
– Pathos--causes of emotion in humans
• not irrational or nonrational as in Gorgias’s
enchantments
– Ethos--character, human goodness, virtue
• Inartistic
– evidence like testimonies, contracts, knives,
tortured slaves
Topos--Places
• Locations for arguments
• For example:
• You want to run for office and you have a
sorted past. Read the Clinton story and
listen to responses he gives, Hilary gives,
others responses. This is a topos for
arguments.
• Others Places? Where would you go?
Fallacies Arguments
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Post hoc--after the fact (Tom and picture)
Ad hominem--attack the person
Ad verecundiam--one source
False associations or metaphors--Doctors in
non-medical aids or sports heroes
More on Aristotle and Rhetoric
• Book one and two on logic and emotions
• Book three on style and delivery
– “mere adornment” (metaphors or style)
– “unworthy” (delivery)
• Demosthenes--”delivery, delivery, delivery”
So, What did Aristotle do for
Rhetoric?
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A counterpart to dialectics
An area of study--the dunamis (power)
Valuable study
Two areas of proof
THE ENTHYMENE
Topos
So, is rhetoric an art, techne, or a knack?
Some Rhetorical Examples
and /or Problems
• The CAR committee:
• “I’m asking to have my low undergraduate
and graduate grade point average and low
MAT score to be waved because I’m almost
done with my course work and I need to be
accepted into the program to graduate in the
Spring.”
More Examples/Problems
• Ms. Malloy, a pro-life advocate
– “Dr. Foster (of Clinton fame) should not be the
head of the upcoming teen-pregnancy
prevention task force committee because he is
pro-choice and has performed abortions.”
More Examples/Problems
• The case of the lost earring.
• Solomon and the Baby
More Examples/Problems
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Chicago Hope and the fetus/abortion case.
- Enthymeme or shared value beginning?
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Presidential Appointment Click here.
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- What is the enthymeme? Strong? Weak?
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The young Islamic “peeping tom”
- Enthymeme or shared value beginning?
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Dan and Steve’s Grants--Where do we
begin?
Your papers?
Key point regarding enthymemes is . . . ?
More Examples/Problems
regarding Aristotle's Rhetoric
• Movies (tomorrow)
– The city
– A time to kill
– Contact