Chapter 1
2 Things can be said regarding Plato and his approach to education
1. He decried the sophists and isocrates for elevating rhetoric and devaluing philosophy 2. he was skeptical at best regarding the use of rhetoric (properly used in his vision of a just society)
Five principle duties for any speaker (Quintilian) < he saw rhetoric as the act of speaking well, useful for practical and public affairs
1. defend truth 2. protect the innocent 3. prevent criminal behavior 4. inspire the military 5. inspire the public
Four functions in an open society (Aristotle)
1. rhetoric through application of speech allowed for true and just ideas to prevail because he noted all things in public debate are not equal and capabale speakers need to advocate for them to win out 2. rhetoric offered the ability to instruct people on how to connect their ideas with the experiences of their audiences (allows us to teach others) 3. saw rhetoric as the means of analyzing both sides of a question (similar to the view of protagoras) 4. understood rhetoric as a means to defend oneself nothing that speech and rational thought are abilities unique to human beings
3 Ways in Which Someone Could Know Something (Aristotle)
1. techne (experiential knowledge) because it comes from a person's own encounters. this knowledge is of particular things based on our interactions with the world around us and although it is somewhat unreliable it is Aristotle's preferred form because we are aware that we know something because we have experienced it 2. similar to one true knowledge professed by plato, episteme (universal knowledge), the understanding about the common characteristics of like materials, resembles plato's idea of metaphysical forms, where he felt true knowledge existed (knowing a particular thing comes from experience) 3. intermediate form, primarily concerned ethics, knowing what does not reflect an excess or a defect but instead what is intuitively correct to the person is exemplified in his Golden Mean where he claimed to much or too little of anything is a bad thing
Who were the first to put quite a bit of emphasis on developing oratorical skills? (Homer's Illiad and Odyssey)
Classical Greeks
Ethos Pathos Logos
Ethos: credibility of the speaker Logos: logical dimension of the appeal Pathos: emotional dimensions of the appeal that can influence an audience's disposition toward the topic, speaker, or occasion
Gorgias's View on Rhetoric (4) vs. Protagoras's View on Rhetoric (3)
Gorgias: 1. audience and speaker relationship is linear 2. speaker fills the audience with knowledge/moves them to action 3. audiences are passive and can be moved by language 4. language can be used to stir emotions Protagoras: 1. anything and everything can be argued 2. important to know both sides of an issue 3. important to prepare argument for both sides of an argument to see which is the best and more accurate
Gorgias
Sophist who understood the relationship of speaker and audience as linear, whereby a speaker fills the audience with knowledge, or moves them to action foreigner in Athens who developed a strong following believed audiences were passive and could be moved by elaborate and "magical" language that captured their attention Language and words accomplished things by encouraging human emotions and his teachings concentrated on different styles of language use power of persuasion lay in style and the construction of creative linguistic phrasess
Correctness
accuracy of information presented and the honest representation of the speaker
civic engagement
acting upon a sharp awareness of one's own sense of responsibility to his or her community
Inartistic proof
all the evidence, data, and documents that exist outside of the speaker and the audience, but nevertheless can aid in persuasion
noise
anything that interferes with the encoding, transmission, and reception of a message
Artistic Proof
constructed by the speaker for the occasion; concerns ethos, pathos, and logos
Message
content you send to an audience, both unintential and intentional
Two major differences between education today and education in the Classical Period
curriculum (education in the Roman empire or Greek city-states was rhetoric) nature of education (today there is much government intervention > public schools, state-sponsored universities // before you could hire a teacher to home-school a child or you could send the child to one of the few prominent schools)
Memory
fifth canon of rhetoric refers to one's ability to recall names and important information in the middle of a speech as well as to deliver a cogent speech without notes
Invention
first canon of rheetoric where you choose the best possible arguments for your case
Delivery
fourth canon of rhetoric; the manner in which you physically and vocally present the speech
Propriety
good behavior and faithfulness to what one considers moral and just
Aristotle differed from plato MOST IMPORTANT
he viewed rhetoric and speech as a potentially important component of civil society
What was the first school of rhetoric in Athens? Critics?
isocrates first chief critics built another institution called plato's "Academy"
Sophists
itinerant teachers who traveled from city-state to city-state in Classical Greece, training people in public speaking
channel
mode through which the message is conveyed to another party
How would Isocrates define a good speaker?
morally sound who could discern right from wrong well-learned on a variety of subjects
Inartistic proofs are _________ by the speaker in the same way as artistic proofs
not manufactured
Isocrates believed that it is much better to form _________ about ________, than to have __________ of __________.
probable opinions, useful things, exact knowledge, useless things
Encoding
process of attaching symbols to ideas and feelings so that others may understand them
decoding
process of taking a message that has been sent and using one's own experienes and knowledge to give it meaing
transactional model of communication
recognizes that we simultaneously send and receive messages; a cyclical model of the communication process
feedback
responses and reacitons to the messages transmitted by the sender; is itself a new message sent back to the original sender
Aristotle disagreed with plato on the nature of rhetoric and speech
rhetoric is a creative process of determining what should be said where plato equated rhetoric with persuasion
linear model of communication
shannon-weaver model; communication process that involves a sender who encodes a message and sends it through a channel where it competes with distracting forces called noise while on its way to a receiver who then decodes the message
Isocrates (guy)
shared views held by sophists but he was an athenian citizen opened a school where rhetoric and speech were core components of the education taught his students that a person's capacity to know things was limited and therefore expecting to know the right course of action in every situation and on every issue was impossible only a well educated man could determine the best course of action through a well informed, yet incomplete, opinion
Protagoras
sophist who taught a different understanding of rhetoric and public speaking to his students anything could be argued taught his students to know both sides of an argument because doing so was the only way to know which side they should believe critics said that this approach merely instructed people to make the worst case look better in an effort to win the debate
Rhetors
speakers
Plato
student of socrates believed sophistic approach was dangerous and not conductive to living what he termed "a good life" in which understanding justice and living a just life were the ultimate goal for an individual thought sophists trained people to achieve personal goals through use of persuasion that used language to manipulate public opinion felt that not everyone was capable of conducting the task of seeking and knowing the truth (only philosophers)
Clarity
the ability of speakers to clearly articulate what they wish to say
Rhetoric
the ability speak well and persuade audiences
Arragement
the second canon of rhetoric where you determine the most effective way to organize your case for the topic and the audience
Style
the third canon of rhetoric; involves word choice, phrasing and the level of formality in the language you use to present your case to the audience
Kairos
timing and recognition of the needs of the occasion you can only teach this through extensive repetition and exposure to civic life, which is where the speaking of his time took place