- Political (or deliberative): “urges us either to do or not to do something” and is associated with the future
- Forensic: “either attacks or defends somebody” and is associated with the past
- Ceremonial: “either praises or censures somebody” and is associated wit the present
“Rhetoric is the counterpart of Dialectic” and “may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion” (B1). As he defends rhetoric (responding to people like Plato), he writes that “it is absurd to hold that a man ought to be ashamed of being unable to defend himself with his limbs, but not of being unable to defend himself with speech and reason, when the use of rational speech is more distinctive of human being than the use of his limbs” (B1).
Persuasion
- “The use of persuasive speech is to lead to decisions…This is so even if one is addressing a single person” (B2).
- “There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions” (B1).
- “Every one who effects persuasion through proof does in fact use either enthymemes or examples: there is no other way” (B1).
Audience
- Aristotle considers audience as he writes that “the hearer…determines the speech’s end and object” and emphasizes that the rhetoric must take into account the audience’s “particular customs, institutions, and beliefs” (B1). Aristotle doesn’t think highly of the audience as he claims that the rhetor “assume[s] an audience of untrained thinkers” (B1) and argues that delivery is necessary only because the audience is defective (B3).
A Man’s Character
- Aristotle believes that a man’s character is important in speech making; however, he implies that a man can fake that character: “he must also make his own character look right and put his hearers, who are to decide, into the right frame of mind…[I]t adds much to an orator’s influence that his own character show look right and that he should be thought to entertain the right feelings toward his hearers: and also that his hearers themselves should be in must the right frame of mind…There are three things which inspire confidence in the orator’s own character – the three, namely, that induce us to believe a thing apart from any proof of it: good sense, good moral character, and goodwill” (B2).
Rhetoric Triangle
- Aristotle has a version of the rhetorical triangle: “speaker, subject, and person addressed” (B1).
Style, Arrangement and Delivery
- “In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the style, or language, to be used; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech” (B3).
- For style, the speech should be clear and “appropriate, avoiding both meanness and undue elevation” (B3). Aristotle emphasizes that poetry has more flowery language than rhetoric, and this flowery language is inappropriate for rhetoric; however, a rhetor can use some poetry techniques like metaphor and simile (B3).
- For arrangement, Aristotle states, “A speech has two parts. You must state your case, and you must prove it” (B3). These are called Statement and Argument. A person can, though does not always need to, add the Introduction and Epilogue.
- For delivery: “These are the three things [of delivery] – volume of sound, modulations of pitch, and rhythm…Still, the whole business of rhetoric being concerned with appearances, we must pay attention to the subject of delivery, unworthy though it is, because we cannot do without it…[N]othing should matter except proof of those facts…Still, as has been already said, other things affect the result considerably, owing to the defects of our hearers” (B3).
Talent vs. Teaching
- “Dramatic ability is a natural gift, and can hardly be systematically taught. The principles of good diction can be so taught, and therefore we have men of ability in this direction too” (B3). Rhetorics “invention can only come through natural talent or long practice” (B3).
Other Key Words
- Enthymemes: “the substance of rhetorical persuasion” because is it “the most effective of the modes of persuasion” (B1). “when it is shown that, certain propositions being true, a further and quite distinct proposition must also be true in consequence…The enthymeme must consist of few propositions, fewer often than those which make up the normal syllogism. For is any of these propositions is a familiar fact, there is no need even to mention it; the hearer adds it himself” (B1).
- Example: “when we base the proof of a proposition on a number of similar cases” (B1)
- Maxim: “a statement; not a particular fact, but of a general kind; not is it about any and every subject, but only about questions of practical conduct, courses of conduct to be chosen or avoided” (B2).