Section 1 - Rhetorical Concepts and Devices

Question 1

Define agora.

Answer 1

The center of athletic, artistic, spiritual, political, and commercial life of the city. (Ancient Greece)

Question 2

Who is Peitho?

Answer 2

The Greek goddess of persuasion.

Question 3

Define direct democracy.

Answer 3

A government in which the people had the right and duty to participate in decision making.

Question 4

Define logographos.

Answer 4

Assistance from legal consultancy to writing the entire speech of defense or prosecution.

Question 5

Define rhetor.

Answer 5

The citizen who spontaneously addressed the Assembly, or a term for a skilled speaker.

Question 6

What is a Sophist?

Answer 6

A paid teacher of philosophy and rhetoric in ancient Greece, associated in popular thought with moral skepticism and specious reasoning.

Question 7

Define practical wisdom (according to Thomas Aquinas).

Answer 7

1. “Right reason of things to be done”
2. Good deliberation about the means to a good end
3. A correct judgment about what is to be done
4. The execution of that good choice

Question 8

What is persuasion (according to its etymology)?

Answer 8

“Through sweetness”: “per” + “suasion”

Question 9

Define Hellenism?

Answer 9

The national character or culture of Greece, especially ancient Greece. Marked by rationalism and logic.

Question 10

What is visual rhetoric?

Answer 10

A form of rhetoric that influences people through visual signs using the available means.

Question 11

Define antimetabole (and give an example).

Answer 11

A literary and rhetorical device in which a phrase or sentence is repeated, but in reverse order. Ex: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” - John F. Kennedy

Question 12

What is an allegory?

Answer 12

A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

Question 13

Define simile (and give an example).

Answer 13

An explicit comparison using “like”, “as”, or “than.” Ex: Jesus describing the “Kingdom of God” as “a mustard seed.”

Question 14

What is an encomium?

Answer 14

A discourse that praises the virtues of someone and their actions.

Question 15

Define enthymeme.

Answer 15

A truncated/compressed syllogism; while syllogisms lay out their premise and conclusion explicitly, enthymemes keeps at least one of the premise and conclusion unsaid.

Question 16

What is an argumentum ad baculum?

Answer 16

“Appeal to the stick.” Fallacy committed when one appeals to force or the threat of force to bring about the acceptance of a conclusion.

Question 17

Define argumentum ad hominem.

Answer 17

The person is attacked instead of the argument.

Question 18

What is rhetorical criticism?

Answer 18

The study of discourse in context. A systematic approach to unpacking why a given text is the way it is - going back to the process of invention, arrangement, style, construction of persuasion strategies, finding its main purpose.