Classical
Canon
Nature of Rhetoric
(Aristotle)
counterpart
(ANTISTROPHE) to
dialectic and ethics
ARISTOTLE'S LAYOUT
OF THE PERSON
• BODY (MATERIAL)
• SOUL (IMMATERIAL)
• psyche, anima, pneuma
Intuitive reason (nous)
Human
Nature
Theoretical reason
Philosophic
Reason (Sophia)
Scientific
Knowledge
(Episteme)
Action
Animal
Nature
Feelings
Desires
Vegetable
Nature
Nutrition
Growth
Calculative
Reason (deals
With contingent)
(Pragma) (doxa)
Grasp first principles
Demonstration from first
principles
Necessary (certain)
Production
Techne (art)
Practical
Wisdom
(Phronesis)
Rhetoric--ethics
Rhetor:
“The good man speaking well”
Quintillion
Nature of Rhetoric
(Aristotle)
Definition: faculty of
observing, in any situation,
the available means of
persuasion.
Situations
Paradigm
Focus
Purpose
Forensic
Law court
Past
Seek justice
Deliberative
Legislature
Future
Determine what
should be done
Epidictic
Ceremonial
Present
Praise and
blame
Proofs (pistuein)
Artistic/
inartistic
Speaker made
Evidence—propositions the audience establishes are
relatively free of speaker bias
Ethos
Sagacity, virtue, benevolence
Pathos
(devices designed to put the audience in the proper
state of mind for the reception of the speaker's
arguments)
Logos
enthymemes
examples (paradeigma)
signs (fallible, infallible)
OFFICES
• Perspectives
• In general, the canon was present in the
Rhetorica, but the form in which we know
it is largely the result of later rhetoricians;
particularly Cicero
INVENTION
•
•
•
•
•
topoi
common (universal) possible, impossible, past
fact, future fact, size.
special (associated w/ special subjects such as
ethics and politics.)
lines of argument
(methods of reasoning)
more or less,
opposites,
etc.
stasis
(stock issue--turning point) Aristotle (III 17)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Was the act committed?
Did the act cause harm?
Was the harm more or less than alleged?
Was the act justified?
Hermagoras of Temnos
1.
2.
3.
conjecture
from a consideration of the motive of accused
from a consideration of the character of accused
from a consideration of the act itself (signs and general evidence pointing
to the accused)
Definition
(murder, theft, treason, etc.)
Quality
1. pleas of justification (no harm admitted)
2. counterproposition (harm admitted but...)
3. counterplea (claim of benefit rendered)
3. shifting of blame
to a person or circumstance capable of liability
to a person or circumstance incapable of liability
objection
(to the trial on procedural grounds)
Disposition
•
•
•
•
•
•
Macrostructure
Proem (introduction)
Statement (thesis)
proof (body)
epilogue (conclusion)
Microstructure
statement,
proof
Style
Elevated, middle, low
virtues:
Clarity
use common words but put them together so the whole bears a
subtle air of strangeness.
Avoid using elevated language when young and for talking about
trivial matters
use metaphors and similes (tropes, figures of speech & thought
later) Appropriateness
conveys the states of feeling (pathe) describes character (ethe) and
is proportionate to the subject matter.
Purity (hellenism)
Dignity (weight)(opposite is conciseness)
Vices:
Frigidities
overcompounding (beggar-poet-toady)
using archaic or dialect words (the baleful criminal)
Overwriting with long, untimely or crowded epithets (not laws,m but
laws the rules of states [we the people]
Inappropriate metaphors (events fresh and full of blood)
Cicero on Style
virtues
clarity,
correctness,
appropriateness,
embellishment (tropes and figures of thought
and speech)
Memory
mnemonics--association with topics (places)
Delivery
• Delivery can be treated scientifically--has
to do with management of the voice to
express each of the pathe. The voice
varies in volume, pitch and rhythm.