Date post: | 18-Dec-2015 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | justin-pitts |
View: | 228 times |
Download: | 0 times |
Aristotle: His Life
• “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
• 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
• 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– ?
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
• 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?
• 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 Examplesand /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• Chicago Hope and the fetus/abortion case.
- Enthymeme or shared value beginning?
• Presidential Appointment Click here.
• - What is the enthymeme? Strong? Weak?
• The young Islamic “peeping tom” - Enthymeme or shared value beginning?
• Dan and Steve’s Grants--Where do we begin?• Your papers?• Key point regarding enthymemes is . . . ?