Purposive Communication 2/Introduction to Rhetoric

Overview of Classical Rhetoric

MODULE 2: OVERVIEW OF CLASSICAL RHETORIC

Course Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the module, the students will be able to:
1. Explain the background of classical rhetoric
2. Identify the concepts linked with the classical rhetoric
3. Distinguish and differentiate the divisions of rhetoric from each other
4. Classify the canons of rhetoric

Introduction

Classical writers considered rhetoric as having been "invented," or more precisely,

"discovered," in the fifth century B.C. in the democracies of Syracuse and Athens.
Attempts were made to describe the character of an effective speech and to teach
someone how to plan and deliver one. Under democracies citizens were expected to
join in political debate, and they were expected to speak on their own behalf in courts of
law. A theory of public speaking developed an extensive technical vocabulary to
describe features of argument, arrangement, style, and delivery. In recent years, the
term "metarhetoric" has been coined to describe a theory or art of rhetoric in contrast to
the practice or application of the art in a particular communication. The first teachers of
rhetoric were the itinerant lecturers of fifth century Greece known as "sophists".
Classical rhetoricians recognized that many features of their subject could be found in
Greek literature before the "discovery" of rhetoric as an academic discipline, and they
often used rhetorical concepts in literary analysis. All literature is "rhetorical" in the
sense that its function is to affect reader "to teach and to please," as the Roman poet
Horace and many other critics put it.2
Purposive Communication 2/Introduction to Rhetoric
Overview of Classical Rhetoric

The Topics (Topoi)

Classical rhetoricians developed the topics as an aid to discovering discourse. Though

the topics are helpful, they cannot substitute for broad knowledge of the world acquired
through keen study and experience. There are common topics; Definition (genus,
division), Comparison (similarity, differences and degree), Relationship (cause and
effect, contraries, antecedents and consequences), Circumstances (possibility, past
and future facts), Testimony (laws, authority, precedents) and there are also special
topics that are specific to each form; deliberative, forensic and ceremonial.1

Three Divisions of Rhetoric3

Political/Deliberative
Political speaking urges us either to do or not to do something; one of these two
courses is always taken by private counsellors, as well as by men who address public
assemblies. The political orator is concerned with the future, it is about things to be
done henceforth that he advises, for or against. The political orator aims at establishing
the convenience or the harmfulness of a proposed course of action; if he urges its
acceptance, he does so on the ground that it will do good; if he urges its rejection, he
does so on the ground that it will do harm; and all other points, such as whether the
proposal is just or unjust, honourable or dishonourable, he brings in as additional and
relative to this main consideration. Political orators often make any compromise short of
admitting that they are recommending their listeners to take an inexpedient course or
not to take an practical one.

Forensic
Forensic speaking either attacks or defends somebody; one or other of these two things
must always be done by the parties in a case. The side in a case at law is concerned
with the past; one man blames the other, and the other defends himself, with reference
Purposive Communication 2/Introduction to Rhetoric
Overview of Classical Rhetoric

to things already done. Parties in a law-case aim at establishing the justice or injustice
of some action, and they too bring in all other points as additional and relative to this
one. The litigant will sometimes not deny that a thing has happened or that he has done
harm. But that he is guilty of injustice he will never admit; otherwise there would be no
need of a trial.

Epideictic/Ceremonial
The ceremonial oratory of display either praises or criticizes somebody. The ceremonial
orator is, appropriately speaking, concerned with the present, since all men praise or
blame in view of the state of things active at the time, though they often find it useful
also to recall the past and to make presumptions at the future. Those who praise or
attack a man aim at proving him worthy of honour or the reverse. In like manner those
who praise or censure a man do not consider whether his acts have been practical or
not, but often make it a ground of actual praise that he has abandoned his own interest
to do what was moral.

Table 1: The Rhetoric Situation4

Kind of
Audience Time Ends (teloi) Means (topoi)
Discourse
The just and the Accusation and
Forensic Decision-makers Past
unjust defense
The expedient and Persuasion and
Deliberative Decision-makers Future
inexpedient dissuasion
The noble and
Epideictic Spectators Present Praise and blame
shameful

The above table summarizes the difference among the three discourses of rhetoric;
forensic, deliberative/political and epideictic/ceremonial. The distinction of the role of
Purposive Communication 2/Introduction to Rhetoric
Overview of Classical Rhetoric

audiences in each discourse, the time it takes place, its aim and how the aim will be
attained, as demonstrated.

Five Canons of Classical Rhetoric2

I. Invention (inventio)
This is concerned with thinking out the subject matter; with identifying the question at
issue, which is called the stasis of the speech, and the available means of convincing
the audience to accept the speaker's point.

II. Arrangement (dispositio)

It means the organization of a speech into parts, though the order in which arguments
are presented, whether the strongest first or toward a climax, is sometimes discussed.
Rhetoricians found it difficult to separate discussion of arrangement from discussion of
invention and often merged the two in to an account of the intentional features of each
part of a speech.

III. Style (elocutio)

It is characteristic of classical rhetoric to regard style as a purposeful process of
directing subject into language; the same ideas can be expressed in different words with
different effect.

IV. Memory (memoria)

Once a speech was planned and written out, the student of rhetoric was expected to
memorize it word for word for verbal delivery. A mnemonic system of backgrounds and
images had been developed for this purpose.

V. Delivery (pronuntiatio)
This is divided into control of the voice (volume, pitch, and so on) and gesture, which
includes effective control of the eyes and parts of the body.
Purposive Communication 2/Introduction to Rhetoric
Overview of Classical Rhetoric

Note: The five parts of classical rhetoric will be further discussed on the succeeding
modules.

Sources:

1
A Brief Summary of Classical Rhetoric. Date Retrieved September 27, 2019 from
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~rhetoric/summary.doc

2
Kennedy, George A. A NEW HISTORY OF CLASSICAL RHETORIC. Date Retrieved
September 27, 2019 from
http://www.sjsu.edu/people/cynthia.rostankowski/courses/HUM1AF14/s3/Lecture-12-
Kennedy-and-Aristotle-Readings.pdf

4
MIT Open Course Ware. (2009). Classical Rhetoric and Political Discourse. Date
Retrieved September 27, 2019 from https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/comparative-media-
studies-writing/21w-747-classical-rhetoric-and-modern-political-discourse-fall-
2009/lecture-notes/MIT21W_747_01F09_lec03.pdf

3
W. Rhys Roberts. (1994-1998). Rhetoric. Date Retrieved September 27, 2019 from
http://www.bocc.ubi.pt/pag/Aristotle-rhetoric.pdf