Quiz 1 Flashcards
Rhema
an utterance
Rhesis
A speech
Arts of the logos
or the appeal to logic, means to convince an audience by use of logic or reason.
rhetorike
Plato’s word for rhetoric
philosophia
The love and search for wisdom
isegoria
a guarantee of equal opportunity to speak freely in public settings and assembly
parrhesia
a no boundary speech
sophos
the wise one
logographer
speech writers, sophists, who could be hired for a high fee
arête
including virtue, personal excellence and even the ability to manage one’s personal affairs in an intelligent manner so as to succeed in public life. also suggested all of the qualities taken to be marks of natural leaders
dissoi logoi
opposing viewpoints/contradictory arguments
probabilities
things that could happen
contingencies
practical questions about matters that confront everyone and about which there are no definite and unavoidable answers
changes
kairos
what is right for that specific moment, knowledge of the past is important, fitting response, study situation (r and t)
Parmenides
reason and revelation
permanent - cannot kill period nothing changes, only permanent change
Heraclitus
rhetoric is “t” and “r”
riddler - look at options and consequences essence of universe is dynamic and always changing
Empedocles
originator of the cosmogenic theory
very shadowy figure who taught Gorgias invented the art of rhetoric
Protagoras
The first important sophist.
“the father of debate”
persuasion: ability - can all develop it.
Gorgias
Gorgias of Leontini was a Greek (non-Athenian) sophist and rhetorician who formed part of the first generation of sophists in Ancient Greece around 485-380 B.C. He asserted to have the skill of persuasion and thought rhetoric to have magical powers over words due to language’s ability to control the mind. Gorgias was also big in the use of rhyme and style in order to make his arguments more convincing and “magical”.
Isocrates
believed in phronesis - tied together sophists and socratics
different because he was concerned about building good citizens believed in kairos knows he cannot teach virtue but knows it can be morally impoving
Donald C. Bryant’s definition of rhetoric
art of adjusting ideas to people and people to ideas
Marie Hochmuth Nichols’ definition of rhetoric
A means of so ordering discourse as to produce an effect on the listener or reader
Kenneth Burke’s definition of rhetoric
The use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings, that by nature, respond to symbols.” ~Claimed by sociology English and communication
Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric
ability in each particular case to see all the available means of persuasion. Rhetoric is just the antistrophos of dialect (flip side of coin
George Kennedy’s distinction between “Technical rhetoric” and “Philosophic rhetoric;”
Technical rhetoric: how to _______ —practical methods for advocacy (how to write good speech etc.) Philosophical rhetoric: Philosophic rhetoric: debate about the relationship of rhetoric to other forms of human inquiry
the three (3) things which “rhetoric,” within the humanistic study of communication, emphasizes
- study texts. 2 deals with time. 3 civic participation/responsibility
three (3) types of responses persuasion seeks to affect
- response-shaping, 2. response-reinforcing 3. response-changing
The ideas of Parmenides and Heraclitus about the essence of the universe, and which tradition (i.e., Heraclitian or Parmenidian), primarily, has been dominant in the study and practice of rhetoric in the Western world
Heraclitus: No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
Heraclitus believed that the universe was governed by a divine logos or reason. This fundamental law of the universe held all things in perfect balance. According to Heraclitus, the unity of the universe is composed of a balancing of opposites. Day becomes night and hot will become cold. The continuous changing of reality was the one fundamental constancy within the cosmos. This belief lead Heraclitus to the conclusion that all things are always in flux and that the only thing that did not change was change itself.
Parmenides: Through deductive reasoning, Parmenides concluded that something that exists (it is) cannot also not exist (it is not). This would involve a logical contradiction. This thinking would lead Parmenides to conclude that a state of nothingness was impossible. A void in the universe or reality could not be. Parmenides then concluded that something could not have been created from nothing, the universe could not have sprang from an empty void. Additionally anything that exists could not logically go into a state of non existence. Therefore all that exists must have always existed in some form or another.
This idea of permanence means that something that is permanent can not change into something else without it ceasing to be permanent. Fundamental change, therefore, is impossible. All things are, they have existed and will always exist in one form or another. This idea of unchanging permanence lead Parmenides to conclude that there is an indivisible unity within the universe
which tradition encompasses Reason and/or Revelation as the means to understanding “Truth” and which promotes rhetoric as the means of creating “truth.”
Parmendian
three (3) aspects of Athenian life that focused Greek attention on, and emphasized the importance of, public speaking
- legal system 2. political system 3. culture based on spoken word
why it is important to understand Athens as a “contest” society and the influence this had on some of the Sophists.
- this explains why the sophists were focused on rhetoric and the best possible arguments
- it explains why the sophists were so oriented on speaking and communication
general characteristics of the Sophists
technical rhetoric and doxa
the multiple reasons Herrick lists/explains why the Sophists were often disliked
1.taught for pay, 2. they were foreigners who had relocated to Athens, 3. they were from outside of the Hellenistic world and they had a habit of traveling, 4. truth emerged from clash of arguments, 5. built a view of justice on the notion of social agreement or nomos
Protagoras: his importance to the Sophistic Movement
FIrst important sophist
led the sophistic movement in athens
the father of debate
Protagoras: where he was from (i.e., not Athens)
Abdera, Thrace
Protagoras: his view of truth
no absolute truth
Protagoras: what he is primarily remembered for teaching/practicing in relation to rhetoric (i.e., his three (3) most famous, and controversial, ideas/dictums/claims that reveal perspectives on human communication);
- Man is the measure of all things (not the gods)
- For every perspective, there is at least one opposing perspective a. Dissoi logoi – opposing viewpoints
- Take weaker argument and make it look stronger
Protagoras: implications of those teachings as we’ve discussed them in class
Out adverserial legal system is based on making the weaker case appear stronger
Protagoras: he’s also known as the “Father of . . .”?
debate
Gorgias: who was his teacher/primary influence;
Empedocles.
Gorgias: in what country he was born and later represented as an ambassador to Athens
Leontini in Sicily. olitical ambassador seeking military assistance against Syracuse, a city-state in Sicily
Gorgias: his “specialty” in public speaking
extemporaneous oratory, and that he had the boldness to say “‘suggest a subject’ …he was the first to proclaim himself willing to take the chance, showing apparently that he knew everything and would trust the moment to speak on any subject.
Gorgias: ; his view of truth as it seems to appear in the three (3) aspects of his argument in “On Nature”/”On Not Being”/“On the Non-Existent” discussed in class and in the Herrick text
“if the nonexistent exists, it will both exist and not exist at the same time”
“if things considered [imagined or thought] in the mind are not existent, the existent is not considered” (B3.77), that is to say, existence is incomprehensible.
Finally, Gorgias proclaims that even if existence could be apprehended, “it would be incapable of being conveyed to another”
Gorgias: what we think Gorgias might have meant by arguing the way he did about “Nothing exists; if it did we couldn’t know it, . . . ” and the implications of those teachings
1.Nothing exists (until you name it, language is powerful), 2. If it did we couldn’t know it, 3. Couldn’t communicate it
Gorgias: what Gorgias taught/practiced about the power of words in relation to human emotions
attention to inherent ppwer of words to capture and move the human spirit
Gorgias: view of kairos.
what is right for that specific moment, knowledge of the past is important, fitting response, study situation (r and t)
What is the hericlitan tradition?
- rhetoric is a means of creating truth
- question things to understand the truth
What is the permindian tradition?
- uses reason or revelation as a means to understanding truth
- rhetoric is secondary
