PHL109: Ancient Philosophy: Rhetoric

Theories of rhetoric initially emerged in Greece in the fifth century B.C. with the realization that in a democracy all citizens had a right and duty to participate in their own government. Aristotle's Rhetoric was the first, systematic study of civic discourse. But this classic text has not benefited from a new translation in sixty years. Now, George A. Kennedy, a leading scholar of classics and communications, has provided an up-to-date, lucid translation which will make the Rhetoric as well known--and as accessible--as Aristotle's Poetics. Kennedy's version of On Rhetoric takes into account all of the latest scholarship on Aristotle, using the most reliable texts available, and preserving Aristotle's distinctive style. He eliminates euphemistic and sexist language (which Aristotle did not use), and maintains contradictions which exist in the hand-written, medieval manuscripts (which provide our only access to Aristotle's work). Kennedy's translation also provides the most substantial commentary, and the most extensive notes, of any English version. In his introduction, we learn of the status of rhetoric before Aristotle's treatise (including the work of Socrates, Plato, and Gorgias), receive an account of his life (he tutored the young Macedonian who later became Alexander the Great), and, of course, find a detailed, chapter by chapter account of the text. Kennedy also includes a glossary of Greek rhetorical vocabulary, supplementary texts (by Gorgias, Cicero, and Aristotle himself), and essays on the Rhetoric's composition and on the history of the text after Aristotle. Aristotle's pioneering study of rhetoric remains useful today, whether for composition studies, public speaking, or literary criticism. The proper use of rhetoric is an essential component of the democratic process, and this readable translation will make the art of persuasion available to new generations of citizens and scholars.

In this major contribution to philosophy and rhetoric, Eugene Garver shows how Aristotle integrates logic and virtue in his great treatise, the Rhetoric. He raises and answers a central question: can there be a civic art of rhetoric, an art that forms the character of citizens? By demonstrating the importance of the Rhetoric for understanding current philosophical problems of practical reason, virtue, and character, Garver has written the first work to treat the Rhetoric as philosophy and to connect its themes with parallel problems in Aristotle's Ethics and Politics. Garver's study will help put rhetoric at the center of investigations of practice and practical reason.

Contents: Aristotle's Rhetoric and the professionalization of virtue -- Aristotle's Rhetoric : between craft and practical wisdom. Aristotle's project : a civic, practical art of rhetoric ; Guiding vs. given ends ; From internal/external ends to energeia/kinesis ; Rhetoric and phronēsis ; Civic vs. professional arts -- The kinds of rhetoric. The plurality of practical discourse and the diversity of goods ; Plurality, function, and the three kinds of rhetoric ; Plurality, diversity, and incommensurability ; From guiding ends to species -- Rhetorical topics and practical reason. Topics and the marriage of politics and dialectic ; Deliberative rhetoric : Rhetoric I.4-8 ; Epideictic rhetoric : Rhetoric I.9 ; Forensic rhetoric : Rhetoric I.10-15 ; Topics and practical reason -- Deliberative rationality and the emotions. Corrupting and enabling emotions ; The place of the emotions in rhetorical argument ; Love and anger, Eunoia and Thymos ; Aristotle's definition of emotion : how emotions modify judgment ; Pleasure, pain, and good practical decisions ; The political function of emotion ; The emotions, good action, and the good life -- Why reasoning persuades. Arguing and persuading ; Arguing and persuading : ethos and trust ; Logical forma and rhetorical forms ; How examples persuade ; How enthymemes persuade ; Rhetorical persuasion and practical reason -- Making discourse ethical : Can I be too rational?. The problem and the evidence ; Character and rhetorical invention ; Why rhetoric needs ethos ; Ethos and trust : speaker and audience ; Artful ethos and real ethos ; How maxims make discourse ethical ; Rhetoric, cleverness, and phronēsis -- How to tell the rhetorician from the sophist, and which one to bet on. Energeia and praxis ; The internal ends of art and virtue ; The art and virtue of truth-telling ; The moral point of view and the rhetorical point of view ; The moral ambiguity of rhetoric, and the moral ambiguity of morality -- Aristotle's rhetoric and the history of prudence.

Aristotle, Rhetoric II: A Commentary completes the acclaimed work undertaken by the author in his first (1980) volume on Aristotle's Rhetoric. The first Commentary on the Rhetoric in more than a century, it is not likely to be superseded for at least another hundred years.

Editor Barnes provides an essay that reviews both Aristotle's Rhetoric and his Poetics.

A bilingual edition of several of this influential twelfth-century philosopher's greatest works.