Competing Receptions of

Aristotle11/8/10

Joshua Roney & Caroline Le

Classical Rhetoric Modern Rhetoric

1. Man is a rational animal living in a society marked by social cohesion and agreed-upon values

1. Man is a symbol-using animal living in a fragmented society.

2. Emphasis on logical (or rational) proofs.

2. Emphasis on emotional (or psychological) proofs.

3. Rhetor-audience relationship is antagonistic, characterized by manipulative one-way communication.

3. Rhetor-audience relationship is cooperative, characterized by emphatic, two-way communication.

4. Goal is persuasive. 4. Goal is communication.

Major Distinctions Typically Drawn between Classical and Modern Rhetoric

1. Both classical and modern rhetoric view man as a language-using animal who unites reason and emotion in discourse with another.

Qualifying distinction:

Aristotle addresses himself primarily to the oral use of language; ours is primarily an age of print.

2. In both periods rhetoric provides a dynamic methodology whereby rhetor and audience may jointly have access to knowledge.

Qualifying distinction:

According to Aristotle, rhetor and audience come into a state of knowing which places them in a clearly defined relationship with the world and with each other, mediated by their language. The prevailing modernist world view compels rhetoric to operate without any such clearly articulated theory of the knower and the known.

3. In both periods rhetoric has the potential to clarify and inform activities in numerous related fields.

Qualifying distinction:

Aristotle’s theory establishes rhetoric as an art and relates it clearly to all fields of knowledge. Despite the efforts of modern rhetoricians, we lack any systematic, generally accepted theory to inform current practice.

Similarities and Qualifying Distinctions between Classical and Modern Rhetoric

“Warnick reviews Aristotle’s philosophy of knowledge, identifying rhetoric as a productive art, a tekhnê. She maintains that as a tekhnê, rhetoric can lead to virtuous outcomes only under the guidance of another mode of judgment, phronêsis” (Gross & Walzer ).

“An important dissent from Fortenbaugh is Amélie Oksenberg Rorty’s ‘Aristotle on the Metaphysical Status of Pathê (1984). She places Aristotle’s classification of temporary, accidental response on a continuum. Stimuli vary from an orator’s words that produce an emotion to the hunger that results in a growling stomach” (Gross & Walzer).

Rhetoric as a tool

“But rhetoric is useful, [first] because the truth and just are by nature stronger than their opposites, so that if judgments are not made in the right way [the truth and the just] are necessarily defeated [by their opposites]” (On Rhetoric 35).

“For Grimaldi, rhetoric is both mirror and prism, reflecting a kind of immanent truth and justice in the world that is not apparent to the naked eye” (Atwill 192).

Lundsford and Ede state, “Modern rhetorical theory rests on no such fully confident epistemology, nor does knowledge enjoy such a clearly defined status. In fact, we are in radical disagreement over what ‘knowledge’ may be, though we generally agree on man’s ability to communicate that disagreement” (47).

Given modern uncertainty about what ‘knowledge’ is, is rhetoric an interpretive or inventive tool?

Discussion Question #1

“By establishing rhetoric as the antistrophos or corollary of dialectic, Aristotle immediately places rhetoric in relation to other fields of knowledge, and these relationships are painstakingly worked out in the Organon. Rhetoric, poetics, and ethics all involve doxa, knowledge of contingent, shifting reality. Hence, rhetoric is necessarily useful in addressing complex human problems in any field where certainty is unachievable”

“If rhetoric is to reach its full potential in the twentieth century as an informing framework for long-divorced disciplines and for instruction and conduct in reading, writing, and speaking, then we must define ourselves not in opposition to but in consonance with the classical model”(Lunsford and Ede 47-49).

Contemporary systematic theory

"Despite the efforts of modern rhetoricians, we lack any such systematic theory to inform current practice"

"Meanwhile, instruction in rhetorical practice--speaking, writing, and reading--is usually relegated to graduate students and part-time instructors and looked upon as menial "service."  (Lunsford and Ede, 48-49)

How would we begin to form a contemporary systematic theory so that we can move beyond 'menial service'? 

Discussion Question #2

“According to Bourdieu, the ‘social conditions of objective apprehension’ reflect a social hierarchy in which the scientific perspective is privileged by those who control ‘dominant system of classification’ [OTP, 178, 169]” (Atwill 194).

“Quite explicitly Bourdieu contends that the theoretical perspective is the distinguishing mark of a particular class, a perspective won against “the conditions of existence and the dispositions of agents who cannot afford the luxury of logical speculation” [OTP, 115]. Bourdieu argues, in effect, that epistemological orders are inextricably tied to social orders” (Atwill 194).

Systems of Classification

Classical Rhetoric vs. Modern Rhetoric

Discuss the roles of sociology and psychology in a modern rhetorical system.

Discussion Question #3

“The Rhetoric’s purpose is to provide motive and means for the political elite to communicate to the masses. Aristotle hopes to transform the concept of rhetoric for ‘political men,’ to make it clearly subordinate to a philosophical politics, and thus to offer an alternative to an Isocratean tradition that equates rhetoric and politics. Jürgen Sprute (1994) maintains similarly that the seeming discrepancies between the ideals of the first chapter and the amorality of Book 3 result from Aristotle’s recognition that to be successful in the political arena ideals would have to be compromised” (Walzer & Gross).

The Rhetor and Ethos

“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps, and I believe that our education—such as in South Africa and Iraq—that our education here in the U.S. should help South Africa, Iraq and the Asian countries.  Thank you.”     

Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina answers a question

Does a rhetor's use of ethos means it must be embodied by him and not just utilized?

Discussion Question #4

“5. [A deliberative speaker] should not forget the ‘end’ of each constitution; for choices are based on the ‘end.’ The ‘end’ of democracy is freedom, of oligarchy wealth, of aristocracy things related to education and the traditions of law, of tyranny self-preservation. Clearly, then, one should distinguish customs and legal usages and benefits on the basis of the ‘end’ of each, since choices are made in reference to this” (On Rhetoric 74).

Democracy

Is the ideology of democracy we hold a reflection of this type of rhetoric image? Should rhetoric be redefined in a meta-culture structure, or DOES Aristotle's format work with that contemporary requirement?

Discussion Question #5

Thank you!