Book 1 Chapter 1 Introduction to Rhetoric for Students of Dialectic

• dialectic is about to win
• process of dialectic
  • Student A: state a thesis
  • Student B: refute the thesis by asking questions
  • Student A: answers with yes or no
  • some student wins
• process of rhetoric
  • continuous exposition
• Dialectic focuses on the logics, only proof
• rhetoric: involves more in form (introduction, narration, epilogue) and ethos and pathos.
• Dialectic: about general issues
• rhetoric: about specific judgments
• Aristotle criticizes the “arts” or the handbooks
  • greater attention to logics or dialectics, and moral purposes
• art (tekhne)
  • observation of how rhetoric works
  • to observe: (1) habits or (2) accidents
• pisteis: means of persuasion
• other handbooks focus on only parts of pisteis (means of persuasion, or matters external to the subject) (1.1.3)
  • it calls itself an art, including introduction, narration, all serviceable to gain over the hearer (1.1.9-10)
• but these handbooks say little about enthymemes (body of persuasion) (1.1.3)
  • Notes: For Aristotle, the subject of rhetoric, or to be more precise, the subject in the rhetoric handbook should contain two aspects: (1) external matters and (2) internal matters. Aristotle calls internal matters enthymemes. Aristotle’s indication is not that the handbooks are wrong, but they are incomplete to cover what rhetoric is.
• Some terms: (1.1.11)
  • artistic method concerned with pisteis: Aristotle talks about the handbook, and the handbook is about the teaching of how rhetoric works. According to the handbook, the art is about pisteis.
  • pisteis is a sort of demonstration (apodeixis): the means of persuasion is to show and demonstrate how one is right and wrong.
  • rhetorical apodeixis is enthymeme: enthymeme is the strongest in apodeixis. Aristotle makes a close connection between enthymeme with rhetoric and believes it is something internal that is missed by handbooks.
  • enthymeme is a sort of syllogism (or reasoning)
  • someone to be enthymematic: (1) to see a syllogism from the materials of discourse; and (2) how the syllogism is organized.
• Difference between handbook and Aristotle’s notion of rhetoric
  • handbook concerns: how a form can help win in judicial oratory, or how to use flattery to please the audience so that they can make a decision to serve orator’s purpose.
  • for Aristotle: rhetoric is about the true and the just–they are stronger by nature already, and they deserve a win.
    • dialectic and rhetoric argues from both sides (for and against)
    • true is by nature more persuasive.
• rhetoric does not belong to any specific subject (1.1.14)
  • function: (1) to persuade; (2) to see available means of persuasion
  • rhetoric is both about the practice of persuasion, and the theory to analyze persuasion. So rhetoric is more than “declamation,” imitation from teachers (Kennedy (Classical Rhetoric) chapter 3)
  • “as is true also in all the other arts”
    • Aristotle makes medicine as an example. A doctor means not only the habit experience to offer right medicine to patients, but they need to know the principles and theory what goes wrong. To cure is one thing (what the handbook teaches), to know why one is sick is another (Aristotle’s rhetoric)
  • with the art one can “see the persuasive and the apparently persuasive”
    • The word apparently can be replaced by seemingly. It refers to the flattery rhetoric, fallacious arguments. Though sometimes they can win a debate, they are just seemingly to be persuasive.
  • difference between sophist and dialectician (or rhetor)
    • whether they make choices.
    • For Aristotle, the true and the just are not about a choice. One has to conform to the truth. If they make a choice, they can practice something vice.
    • sophist: about deliberate choice
    • dialectician: to the ability

Book 1 Chapter 2 Definition of Rhetoric; Pisteis, or the Means of Persuasion in Public Address; Paradigms, Enthymemes, and Their Sources; Common Topics; Eide and Idia

• rhetoric (definition): an ability, in each case, to see the available means of persuasion. This is the function of no other art.
  • Dialectic is close, but the difference lies in that Dialectic deals with the general, not specific cases.
• pisteis: means of persuasion
  • (1) atechnic (nonartistic)
    • not provided by the orator, preexisting
    • to use atechnic pisteis
  • (2) entechnic (artistic)
    • prepared by the orator
    • to invent entechnic pisteis
  • ethos (character): the controlling factor in persuasion
  • pathos: handbooks only cover pathos
  • logos
• rhetoric (focus on the logos part)
  • offshoot of dialectic
  • offshoot of ethical studies (1.2.7)
  • rhetoric is close to dialectic, and resembles dialectic
  • persuasive techniques in dialectic
    • induction: from the particulars to the general
      • paradeigma (example or paradigm): (in rhetoric), a rhetorical induction;
        • NOT: from part to whole, or from whole to part
        • But: from art to part
          • “when two things fall under the same genus but one is better known than the other”
          • It is more of analogy
    • syllogism/ apparent syllogism: one is about the truth, the other is not about the truth. It is similar to deduction, from general (primary premise to particular conclusion)
      • enthymeme: (in rhetoric), a rhetorical syllogism
        • enthymemes excite more favorable audience reaction (1.2.10)
        • about probabilities (1.2.14)
  • logos pisteis: only 2 ways
    • paradigm
    • enthymeme
• Topos: place, where a speaker can look for available means of persuasion

Book 1 Chapter 3 The Three Species of Rhetoric: Deliberative, Judicial, and Epideictic

• division principle: audience, where they belong
• 3 things in a speech situation:
  • a speaker
  • a subject (including someone addressed)
  • telos: objective, related to audience, what is actualized (footnote 80)
• Hearer:
  • spectator: concerns the ability of the speaker
  • judge
    • of the past: in lawcourt, jury
    • of the future: in assembly
• three genera (plural for genus) of rhetoric
  • deliberative
    • protreptic (exhortation/instruction) or apotreptic (dissuasion)
    • future
    • end/telos: advantageous or harmful, as well as incidental
  • judicial
    • in lawcourt
    • accusation or defense
    • past
    • end/telos: just or unjust
  • epideictic
    • praise or blame
    • present
    • also integrate with deliberative (future) and judicial (past)
    • end/telos: honorable or shameful
• 4 subjects of propositions
  • koina: common things
  • idia: specifics

About whether rhetoric is about truth

• rhetoric is by nature about the true and the just (1.1.12, p.34) (nature is more about the physics truth, observable phenomenon; not the divine truth as that in Plato)
• rhetoric is different from persuasion
  • persuasion can include something that is not truth: (1.2.8, p.40) “persuasion… just as in dialectic there is on one hand induction and on the other the syllogism and the apparent syllogism”
  • persuasion occurs …. when we show the truth or the apparent truth (1.2.6)
    • Persuasion can show us the “apparent truth,” not the truth.
    • More on the X and apparent X (1.1.14): true and just are interrelated concepts
• rhetoric is the offshoot of dialectic and of ethical studies (1.2.7)
• the function of rhetoric: not to persuade, but to see the available means of persuasion (1.1.14)

Aristotle vs Plato/Socrates’s notion of rhetoric (2 big differences)

• Aristotle: more than legislative context, e.g. poetry; a tool discipline, does not have a subject matter
• rhetoric is a system of criticism, an ability to see (analysis ability)

Terms:

• dynamis: potential, ability
• pisteis
• ergon: function (1.1.12)
• apodeixis: demonstration
• athenic
• enthenic
• ethos, pathos, logos
• enthymeme
• eide: species (judicial, legislative, epideictic)
• idia: specific knowledge
• Joe’s Graph to explain Aristotle’s rhetoric
  • dynamis
    • ergon
      • pisteis
        • apodeixis: eide and idia
          • atechnical
          • entechnical
        • enthymeme

eudaimonia:

• virtue, ethicists
• happiness:
  • activity of the soul exhibiting virtues
  • virtue is a practice
    • through activity
    • elitist
    • internal rewards
    • moral luck
• virtue: the principle of mean
  • acquired by perception, not by reason
  • moral virtue: native–> habit (developed through craftmanship)
  • intellectual virtue: pedagogy
• anger as virtue