II. Identify and/or Explain Flashcards
Is public speaking an essential ingredient of democracy or a source of its decline?
Matter of personal opinion.
Why the philosopher cannot be a politician according to Socrates?
That [the philosopher’s] dialectical mode of speaking with one person at a time cannot work with the many.
Identify the four virtues of the prose style according to Aristotle.
Grammatical correctness
Clarity: “the virtue of style be defined as “to be clear (speech is a kind of sign, so if it does not make clear it will not perform its function)”
Propriety: “neither flat nor above the dignity of the
subject, but appropriate. The poetic style is hardly flat, but it is not appropriate for speech.”
Ornamentation
Explain the technical conception and the prudential conception of rhetoric during the Renaissance.
1) A technical conception: rhetoric in this period was conceived of as an ethically and ideologically neutral technique of argument gave rise to considerable anxiety concerning the immoral ends to which rhetoric might be put practical politics
2) A prudential conception: rhetoric was seen as the embodiment of a faculty of practical reasoning or prudential deliberation that is tied to ethical norms the good orator is of necessity a good man ethical politics
Explain shortly Machiavelli’s opinion about politics and rhetoric.
Machiavelli does not supplant rhetoric with a more realistic view of politics but rather makes politics more deeply rhetorical than it had been in the earlier humanist tradition
Explain the goal of Adlai Stevenson’s speech to the United Nations.
The GOAL of the speech:
“My government is most anxious to effect a peaceful resolution of this affair.
We continue to hope that the Soviet Union will work with us to diminish the – not only the new danger which has suddenly shadowed the peace,
but all of the conflicts that divide the world.”
Was Winston Churchill’s speech at Westminster College in Fulton kairotic? Explain.
Yes. “Sinews of peace” speech fell after George Kennan’s “Long Telegram” and directly after Stalin’s election speech in 1946 with the purpose of galvanizing the Western world against the Soviet threat.
Define the rhetorical situation according to Lloyd Bitzer, them name and define its three components.
A complex of persons, events, objects and relations inviting discussion which, if it is fitting to the situation, changes the situation
1) Exigency – “an imperfection marked by urgency” – the reason why we perceive a need to speak out on an issue or situation (topic)
2) Audience - those with an interest and ability to react to exigency, those who can be persuaded to act or change
3) Constraints - limitations and opportunities for what can be said; those factors that shape the nature and content of persuasive messages and purposes (that is, make the messages reasonable and sensible)
What is the difference between the flat and the ornamented style according to Aristotle?
FLAT: “The use of nouns and verbs in their prevailing meaning makes for clarity”
ORNAMENTED: “other kinds of words, as discussed in the Poetics, make the style ornamented rather than flat”
Characterize the American golden age of oratory, and name three important political orators of that time.
Oratory = a medium of achieving artistic excellence The age of ceremonial oratory 1) Abraham Lincoln 2) Charles Sumner 3) Stephen Douglas
Explain how Barack Obama identified himself rhetorically with Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr.
Springfield, Illinois, where Obama launched his campaign in 2007:
What the life of “a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us”
Invoking Lincoln as a rhetorician: “He tells us that there is power in words. He tells us that there is power in conviction … He tells us that there is power in hope”
How Lincoln achieved change through “his will and his words”
Springfield speech: “We heard a King’s call to let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
In which American presidential campaign it was used for the first time advertising clip? Explain the rhetorical strategy of that clip.
“I Like Ike”
- Argumentum ad populum
Give three examples of American presidents’ political slogans.
“The new world order” (Bush)
“The new covenant” (Clinton)
“A new American revolution” (Reagan)
What is the most important figure of speech according to Aristotle?
Metaphor
Name two figures of sound, and give one examples for each of them.
Alliteration - “Keep Cool with Coolidge”
Assonance - “I like Ike.”
