FIRST LESSON
EVERYTHING IS RHETORIC
THE BEGINNINGS
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The transformation of institutions of government into democratic forms created
the need for expertise in speaking and writing.
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Prior to the 8th century BC. Ancient Greece was an oral culture.
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In the 5th century Athens evolved into an oral AND literate culture
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Speaking and writing lessons became accessible to ordinary citizens
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The two parallel developments : Democracy AND Literacy created the need for a
more artful and strategic theory of communication: THE ART OF RHETORIC
WHAT DEMOCRACY ENTAILS
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People govern themselves
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Must talk about common problems and provide solutions
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Decision making
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People want to talk about the new ideas
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Debate
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Athens became the perfect example of Democracy
SOPHISTS
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A group of men emerged in Athens whose profession was the study and practice
of rhetoric.
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Greek word “sophos”: Wise
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Those who engaged in the art of rhetoric in the courts, the legislature, and/or the
public forum.
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Three types of Sophistry:
• Teachers of persuasive speaking and writing in schools
• Logographers—wrote speeches for litigators in the courtrooms.
• Professional orator—traveled around the city giving lively philosophical
discourses on all types of topics.
SOPHISTS
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Skill in argument often allowed the guilty to go free, and rhetoric was often used
in the cause of vengeance against one’s political opponents.
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Courts were the social center of Athenian life—rhetoric as practiced there was
soon considered the norm for all types of interactions, and the juror was soon
seen as an easy target for the skillful rhetorician
These skills created enemies.
THE ATTACK ON THE SOPHISTS
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People did not like that Sophists charged large sums of money for their seminar.
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Protagoras: “man is the measure of all things, of things that are as to how they
are, and of things that are not as to how they are not.”
• Each one of us sees the world differently, and forms our own beliefs about the
world around us.
• As individuals we have only our individual perceptions of what is and what is
not.
• The world is a relative place constructed by arguments each one of us makes
for our perceptions and basted on our ability to persuade others that our
perceptions are MORE accurate than our opponents.
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Sophistic education required students to argue both sides of the topic.
ATTACK ON SOPHISTS
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Plato (427-347 B.C.E.)
• Plato’s dialogues uses Socrates as his major character.
• Taught Aristotle
• Dialogues are in Question and Answer
• Wrote the dialogue Gorgias
• Rhetoric has no subject matter of its own, as for instance, medicine or sculpture
• Since no subject matter of its own, rhetoric is speech about appearances, like
cooking or cosmetics.
• Rhetoric is not good for the individual because it allows the wrongdoer to go
unpunished simply because he is better at using words.
• Rhetoric is not good for society because it does not lead to truth, only persuasion
, and only to pleasure for the individual who is persuasive.
PLATO CHANGES HIS MIND?
• Phaedrus
• Rhetoric is a difficult art, but worth
practicing
PLATO VS. SOPHISTS
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Sophists:
• Rhetoric was the art of persuasion carried out through public speaking, the art
of determining how to speak to popular audiences on the wide range of
subjects that might come before them for review and decision.
• Consequence: More power to all the citizens to speak about important
decisions, to influence others.
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Plato:
 Rhetoric was the art of fooling people, of flattering them, of getting the public
to make decisions based on oratorical technique rather than on knowledge
or grasp of the truth.

Consequence: Power to a smaller group of experts in whatever subject came up.
Persuasive speaking would not be a factor.
ARISTOTOLE (384-322B.C.)
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Philosophical basis of rhetoric yet Theoretical
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Gathered the sophists writings on rhetoric
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Aristotle wrote Rhetoric
• Defines rhetoric as “The mirror image of dialectic.”
ARISTOTLE: GREEK INFLUENCE
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Sophists: function of rhetoric is to persuade others.
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Plato: function of rhetoric is to flatter or mislead
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GENRAL function: influence
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Verbal—Language
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Expositional—Argue and Explain
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Discrete text—Clearly distinct and separate in time and space, surrounded by clear
boundaries. Texts that are bounded by time and space
• Text messages
• Speeches
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Hierarchical text– a structure of relationships is imposed on the process of using signs.
• The person giving the speech is put in a position over another.
THREE KINDS OF DISCOURSE
Forensic—PAST—The just and unjust Accusation and Defense
Deliberative—FUTURE—The advantages and disadvantages—Persuasion and
Dissuasion.
Epideictic—Present—The noble and shameful—Praise and blame
ARTISTIC PROOFS
Ethos—Speaker’s good character
Pathos—Emotions
Logos—The Argument as they appear to prove or disprove the speaker’s conclusions.
THE RHETORICAL SITUATION
Lloyd Bitzer (1968):
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Exigence—An imperfection marked by urgency; it is a defect, an obstacle, something waiting
to be done, a thing which is other than it should be.
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Audience—Audience consists only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by
discourse and of being mediators of change.
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Constraints—made up of persons, events objects and relations which are parts of the
situation because they have the power to constrain decision and action needed to modify the
exigence.
Rhetorical discourse comes into existence as a response to a situation.
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Context
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Exigence
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Audience
ENTHYMEME
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Aristotle believed enthymemes are the very body and substance of perusaion
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A logic sandwich that slaps a commonplace—a belief, value or atttitude—and
conclusion together. Enthymeme uses a common place—”something in the
audience’s mind” –to support a choice.
SYLLOGISM—BASIC LAYOUT
First there’s a Major Premise:
Eg. All men are mortal
Next is a Minor Premise:
Eg. Socrates is a man
Finally, a logical conclusion (from premises):
Eg. Socrates is mortal.
EXAMPLE:
Major Premise: Bad Children get spankings.
Minor Premise: You’ve been bad.
Conclusion: You’re going to get a spanking.
To make this an Enthymeme and eliminate a premise:
Bad children get spankings
You’ve been bad.
You’re going to get a spanking.
Final Product: You’ve been bad, so you’re going to get a spanking.
ENTHYMEME’S
Some Enthymemes are simple, while others are complex.
Sometimes the Major Premise is eliminated, while other times it’s the Minor Premise.
Likewise, and somewhat debated, the Conclusion is “held in the mind.”
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Enthymemes work because the rhetoric and audience share something in
common. Usually this is knowledge. This knowledge can be found in:
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•
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Universal principles (Newtonian Physics)
Common Values (illegal acts)
Niche specific (html coding)
Common sense (don’t touch fire—it’s hot)
Premise: Good Work Sister
Conclusion: We never figured you could do
a Man-size job.
NEO-ARISTOTELIAN CRITICISM
The Situation—
Context, Exigence, Audience
The Speaker—
Background and Intentions
The Speech—
Invention (Logos, ethos, pathos)
Arrangement
Style
Delivery
Memory
Evaluation–
Effects and effectiveness
Ethical Assessment
TIMELINE
CHANGES IN 21ST CENTURY
Population
Pluralism: Aware of many perspectives, philosophies , points of view, codes of ethics etc.
Technology:
• 1481 A hand written letter reporting on the death of a Turkish Sultan took 2
years to reach England.
• 1702—Unofficial news of King William’s Death in England reached his subjects
in North America after 2 months and 9 days.
• 1800 News of George Washington’s Death in Virginia appeared THREE weeks
later in Western Spy in Cincinnati
• 1855 A telegraph operator sent news of the Whig presidential ticket from
Annapolis Junction to Washington on the world’s first telegraph line almost
INSTANTLY
• 1963—68% of Americans learned of JFK’s assignation within a half hour of the
attack.