Classical Rhetoric With Aristotle: Traditional Principles of Speaking and Writing

Martin Cothran's Classical Rhetoric with Aristotle is a guided tour through the first part of the greatest single book on communication ever written: Aristotle's Rhetoric. With questions that will help the student unlock every important aspect of the book, along with fill-in-the-blank charts and analyses of great speeches, this companion text to Aristotle's great work will send the student on a voyage of discovery from which he will return with a competent knowledge of the basic classical principles of speech and writing. To the ancients, rhetoric was the crowning intellectual discipline. It took the knowledge the student had gained over the course of his years of schooling and the understanding of logical principles gained from the study of traditional logic and molded them into powerful tools of persuasion. To Aristotle, the art of rhetoric was the chief weapon in the service of truth. Unlike much of modern communication theory, Aristotle did not overemphasize technique. He understood that, although the construction and delivery of a speech or a piece of writing are important, there is a certain body of knowledge a person must have at his disposal in order to communicate effectively. That is why Classical Rhetoric is more than just a course in English or public speaking. It is those things, but it is much more. It involves a study of the fundamental principles of political philosophy, ethics, and traditional psychology. A student learns not only how to give a political speech, but also the elements of good character; not only how to give a legal speech, but also the seven reasons people do things; not only how to give a ceremonial speech, but what incites specific emotions under different circumstances. Classical Rhetoric also familiarizes students with three model speeches as examples of the three branches of classical oratory: The Appeal of the Envoys to Achilles, from Homer's Iliad; the Apology of Socrates, from the dialogue of Plato; and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Students will also be asked to analyze Marc Antony's Funeral Oration from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar as an example of a great speech that defies categorization. Like Traditional Logic, Books I and II, Classical Rhetoric, by Martin Cothran, was developed at Mars Hill, a cottage school for homeschoolers in Lexington, Kentucky. It has the same easy to use features, such as step-by-step daily assignments, giving students explicit instructions at every level. Like all the books in Memoria Press' Classical Trivium Core Series, it is designed to make classical Christian learning accessible to all members of the Christian education community, at home and in the classroom.

I read these works for a graduate seminar on Aristotle.
Definition of Rhetoric- capacity of persuasion. Plato is critical of the Rhetoric and the tragic poetry. Rhetoric is approach to political public speeches in the forum. Plato thought that they clouded the mind and thus created a part of his critique of democracy in general. Plato thinks Socrates was killed by rhetoric used by the Athenian democracy. Plato feared the danger of democracy. Poetry appeals to the base human emotions rhetoric, and poetry block rational truth according to Plato. Rhetoric is psychological force of language vs. logical force of language. Psychology leads people to believe things based on emotions. Speech must appeal to the masses in a democracy. Psychology is persuasion, logic is truth. Deduction and induction is arguing logically. Plato says rhetoric is not a technç, (craft) nor is poetry, because they are undisciplined and not uniform in design. Thus, appeal to psychology and emotion can never be done away with in a democracy, thus Plato abhors them and democracy. Plato calls it sophistry this psychological appeal and democracy requires this to exist, so the problem persists. Plato is clear and consistent in his abhorrence of sophistry and democracy.

Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics are an alternative to Plato. Aristotle's rhetoric tries to strike a middle position. Aristotle says rhetoric and poetry are a technç, the Rhetoric is a handbook. Aristotle says speaker needs to appeal to appropriate information for the particular setting. Much like a lawyer's argument, not just relying on facts, need to appeal to people's emotions. Aristotle does understand that rhetoric can be used in a harmful way.

Aristotle lays out three features in rhetoric:
1. Ethos= character of the speaker, also charisma, speaker earns the audience's trust, use of body language.
2. Pathos= condition of the hearer.
3. Logos= essential bearing on political persuasion, truth.

Thus, Plato's concern by definition excludes speech because it deals with emotion. These three conditions must be in play for a speech to be successful. The rhetoric contains a detailed analysis of the different human emotions and how to elicit them in a speech. Aristotle knows the speaker must be a good student of human nature to tap into human emotions.

Epistçmç is scientific knowledge. Phronçsis is the capacity of the soul for using education, experience and habit all this is in the ethics. This is the same in political world so politics is not an episteme no scientific reasoning. The things that come up in politics are not deduced scientifically. In politics, humans use deliberation between several possible outcomes unlike math where there is only one correct answer. Political speech is contentious because the nature of politics is contentious.

There are two circumstances in rhetoric.
1. Judicial rhetoric has to do with the past like in a court case.
2. Deliberative rhetoric has to do with the future, what decision should we make in political policies.

I recommend Aristotle's works to anyone interested in obtaining a classical education, and those interested in philosophy. Aristotle is one of the most important philosophers and the standard that all others must be judged by.