Canons

Question 1

What Are the 5 Canons of Rhetoric?

Answer 1

1. Invention
2. Arrangement
3. Style
4. Memory
5. Delivery

Question 2

What is invention?

Answer 2

Invention describes the argumentative, persuasive core of rhetoric. Aristotle, in fact, defines rhetoric primarily as invention, “discovering the best available means of persuasion.” An important procedure that formed part of this finding process was stasis.

Question 3

What is Arrangement?

Answer 3

Arrangement (dispositio or taxis) concerns how one orders speech or writing.

Question 4

Describe Style?

Answer 4

Style concerns the artful expression of ideas. If invention addresses what is to be said; style addresses how this will be said. From a rhetorical perspective style is not incidental, superficial, or supplementary: style names how ideas are embodied in language and customized to communicative contexts (see Content / Form)

Question 5

Describe the role of Memory?

Answer 5

Memory is the “treasury of things invented,” and is thus linked to Invention.
Memory is the practice of storing up commonplaces or other material by invention for use as called for in a given occasion. See copia.

Question 6

Describe the role of Delivery?

Answer 6

Presentation has much to do with how one establishes ethos and appeals through pathos, and in this sense is complementary to Invention, which is more strictly concerend with logos.

Question 7

What are the 3 main topics of invention?

Answer 7

Figures of:
Speech
Thought
Amplification

Question 8

Is there an important difference between Figures of Thought and those of Speech?

Answer 8

No! They overlap

Question 9

What are Topics (topoi) of Invention?

Answer 9

Those figures of Thought/Speech that are commonplace.

Question 10

Name 3 Most Important topoi Can You Name?

Answer 10

1. Definition (Genus / Species)
2. Division (Whole / Parts)
   (Subject / Adjuncts)
3. Comparison (Similarity / Difference)
   (Degree)
4. Relationship (Cause / Effect)
   (Antecedent / Consequence)
   (Contraries & Contradictions)
5. Circumstances (Possible / Impossible)
   (Past Fact / Future Fact)
   Testimony, Notation and Conjugates, Judicial, Deliberative, Ceremonial

Question 11

Is there a relationship between

Definition & Division?

Answer 11

Yes! e.g., Genus v. Species, someone had to “define” the categories (i.e., divisions) in reference to which things can then be defined

Question 12

What rhetorical term is closely associated with Genus/Species?

Answer 12

Synecdoche

Question 13

What rhetorical term is closely associated with Comparison?

Answer 13

Simile
Metaphor
Syncrisis

Question 14

What rhetorical terms are closely associated with Subject/ Adjuncts?

Answer 14

taxis
metonymy
peristasis
epitheton-epithet
periphrasis
antonomasia
enargia
Figures of Amplification

Question 15

*What is periphrasis?

Answer 15

The substitution of a descriptive word or phrase for a proper name (a species of circumlocution); or, conversely, the use of a proper name as a shorthand to stand for qualities associated with it.
Example:
Calling one’s father “not Mama”.