Rhetorical Theory Basics
Gorgias and Isocrates
Plato and Aristotle
Greek Rhetorical Legacy
Potpourri
100
"Any mark, sign, sound, or gesture that communicates meaning based on social agreement" (Herrick 6).
What is a symbol?
100
Orators, logographers and teachers who were paid as the world's first communication consultants and trainers.
What are Sophists?
100
Of these two philosophers, this one was the teacher of the other one.
Who is Plato?
100
Just as in the case of the Greek polis, the needs of the Roman republic required that citizens be educated in this critical art and skill.
What is rhetoric?
100
The three points of the "rhetorical triangle" (not the related Aristotelian proofs).
What is the Source, the Message, and the Audience?
200
"A plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena" (Wood).
What is a theory?
200
The central assumption underlying all four reasons why Helen couldn't resist Paris, according to Gorgias' "Encomium of Helen."
What is "weaker things are vulnerable to the power of stronger things?"
200
Because he felt rhetoric had no body of knowledge defining it as an "art", Plato described rhetoric this way instead.
What is a "knack" (or a "habit")?
200
Appropriated from the Greek tradition, the five "canons of rhetoric" discussed in Cicero's "De Inventione."
What are invention, arrangement, style (or expression), memory, and delivery?
200
The concept of situational time, embraced by the Sophists, Isocrates and Aristotle as a key principle of rhetoric.
What is kairos?
300
The element of rhetorical discourse involving the situation from which the rhetorical act is inspired, a situation which the rhetor tries to influence by persuading an audience.
What is "rhetoric is responsive?"
300
The primary approach to persuasion favored by Gorgias, explaining why he emphasized poetic language style and dramatic delivery so much.
What is emotional manipulation?
300
The three "artistic proofs" of Aristotle's rhetoric, corresponding in order of the rhetor, the message, and the audience.
What are ethos, logos, and pathos?
300
Cicero's Latin description of the ideal public speaker (who was also the ideal citizen)?
Who is the "perfectus orator" (or "orator perfectus")?
300
The Roman rhetorician whose description of the emotive power of language in "On the Sublime" is reminiscent of Gorgias' treatment of how rhetoric functions.
Who is Longinus?
400
The type of issues rhetorical discourse addresses, issues that are uncertain and involve variables beyond the rhetor's control.
What is "contingent?"
400
The three requirements for good speech, according to Isocrates.
What is "fitness for the occasion, propriety of style, and originality of treatment?"
400
According to Socrates' analogy in Plato's "Gorgias", rhetoric is to justice as _______.
What is "cookery is to medicine?"
400
Appropriated from the Greek concept of topoi, Cicero discussed how loci, or "commonplace lines of argument," could be used to form arguments on either side of this, a point of central disagreement in a debate or controversy.
What is a point of stasis?
400
The epistemology, or approach to knowledge, shared by Gorgias and Isocrates (and to a lesser degree by Aristotle in certain human affairs like politics and the law).
What is "knowledge is contingent (or probable)?"
500
The element of rhetorical discourse involving why the rhetor is trying to persuade, and how they intend to link that drive to the audience's needs or desires.
What is "rhetoric reveals human motives?"
500
While he claimed that teaching rhetoric is not the same as teaching this personal attribute, he argued that those who want to be successful as rhetors will learn and develop this attribute through rhetorical practice.
What is character (or virtue, or ethics)?
500
Aristotle's definition of rhetoric.
What is "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion?"
500
The five parts of a speech (particularly judicial speeches) discussed by Quintillian, which were drawn from the Greek tradition.
What are the exordium (or introduction), narratio (or narration, statement of facts), confirmatio (or proof, arguments), confutatio (or refutation of opponents), and peroratio (or conclusion)?
500
The ideal ethical goal of rhetoric beyond immediate persuasion and the individual rhetor, shared by Isocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintillian.
What is the pursuit of the public good for the community?
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