Aristotelian Rhetoric
Aristotelian Rhetoric
Introduction
Could it be possible that a person from over 2,000 years ago developed some of the most facinating research on the theory of Rhetoric? It is true, and his name was Aristotle. Heard of him? Yes you probably have, but did you know his research is still scrutinzed over and applauded by many people in the Communication field? We would like to give you a better understanding of Aristotle's Rhetoric Theory so that you may be able to apply it to your own life.
Rhetoric in its general sense is the manipulation of the truth, for example a "fast talking" salesperson (Griffin 302). Aristotle believed that if rhetoric was used positively it could create wonderful outcomes, but if employed negatively it could cause disasterous results. Aristotle made rhetoric into a science that began looking at the results of the speaker, the speech, and the audience (above sentences, Griffin 302).
Persuasion
Aristotle stated that he saw the function of rhetoric was to find "the available means of persausion (Griffin 303)." He created a threefold classification of speech situations:
Courtroom (forensic) Speaking- addresses judges who are trying to decide the facts of a person's guilt or innocence.
Political (deliberative) Speaking- attempts to influence voters and legislatures to sway one way or another.
Ceremonial (Epideictic) Speaking- focuses on praise or blame for the benifit of spectators.
Aristotle taught his students rhetoric by counter comparing it to dialectic. For example, dialectic deals with certainty, where as rhetoric deals with probability. Aristotle found this probability chiefly important to his theory of Rhetoric. He saw rhetoric as "the ways to make truth seem more probable to an audience that ins't completely convinced (Griffin 303)." To make his persuasion useful, Aristotle created three proofs: logical (logos), ethical (ethos), and emotional (pathos).
Logical Proof
Aristotle concerned himself with to forms of logical proof-the enthymeme and the example. "An enthymeme is an imcomplete version of a formal deductive syllogism (Griffin 304)." Basically, an enthymeme is jointly created by the audience and the speaker. It holds the utmost power because the audience is involved and they feel as if they are part of the speech.
Ethical Proof
Ethical proof according to Aristotle is perceived source credibility. He noted three notions that build high source credibility-intelligence, character, and goodwill.
Perceived Intelligence- A speaker will be perceived as intelligent as long as the audience agrees with what he or she is saying. We all think what we believe is correct, and the speaker can play on this belief.
Virtuous Character- Creating an image of a wholesome and honest person.
Goodwill- Creating positive judgement toward the audience and to keep the best interest of the audience at heart (Griffin 306).
Emotional Proof
It was Aristotle's belief that an effective speaker must bring out various emotions from the audience. What he did was catagorize a series of opposite feelings, then interpreted the conditions in which the feeling was administered, and finally he firgured how to make the audience feel a certain way due to the condition (Griffin 307). Here the feelings he tested, the positives and the negatives.
Anger (vs. Mildness)......................................Shame (vs. Shamelessness)
Love or friendship (vs. Hatred)............................Indignation (vs. Pity)
Fear (vs. Confidence)......................................Admiration (vs. Envy)
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Source
Griffin, Em. A First Look at Communication Theory, The McGraw-Hill Companies, INC. New York, 1997.
This web page was created by Kevin O'Reilly and last updated 3/7/00