Aristotle On Rhetoric Essay, Research Paper

ristotle (384-322 B.C.) was a Greek philosopher, educator, and scientist. He was able to combine the thoughts of Socrates and Plato to create his own ideas and definition of rhetoric. He wrote influential works such as Rhetoric and Organon, which presented these new ideas and theories on rhetoric. Much of what is Western thought today evolved from Aristotle’s theories and experiments on rhetoric.

Aristotle’s Life

Aristotle was born in 384 B.C., in Northern Greece. His father was a physician to the king of Macedonia, Amyntas II. Amyntas II was the grandfather of Alexander the Great. When Aristotle was still a boy, both of his parents died; so he was raised by a guardian named Proxenus. At the age of seventeen, he went to Athens to attend Plato’s school, the Academy. Aristotle stayed at the Academy for twenty years as a student, a research assistant, a lecturer, and a research scientist. After Plato died, he moved and lived with Hermeias, a former pupil of Plato. During his three year stay, Aristotle married princess Pithias, Hermeias’s daughter. The couple had two children: a son named Nicomachus and a daughter. In 342 B.C., Aristotle was invited to educate Alexander by Philip of Macedon. He taught Alexander until King Philip was assassinated, then Alexander became ruler. In 335 B.C., he left Macedonia and returned to Athens to found a school named Lyceum. Twelve years later, when Alexander died, the Athenians charged Aristotle with impiety because they resented his relationship with Alexander and other influential Macedonians. Aristotle said that he would not let the Athenians “sin twice against philosophy” (Soll, 663), so he fled to Chalcis. One year later he died at the age of sixty-two.

Aristotle’s Writings and Philosophies

Aristotle’s writings can be categorized into three groups: popular writings, memoranda, and the treatises. His popular writings were written for a general audience and modeled after Plato’s dialogues. The memoranda is a collection of research materials and historical records. Most of the writings from these two groups have been lost. The third group, the treatises, was written for his classes, to teach his students. They were either lecture notes or textbooks. These treatises were made only for the students and are the only writings that still survive today. Aristotle’s early writings showed his admiration for Plato by imitating Plato’s style. He wrote in dialogue form and his themes were variations of themes that Plato had developed. Later on, his writings strayed from Platonistic views and they compared concrete fact to the abstract and often clashed with the views of Plato. Two of his most important writings concerning rhetoric are Organon and Rhetoric.

Organon was a collection of papers that included the Categories, the Prior and Posterior Analytics, the Topics, and On Interpretation. The word organon means instrument. In these papers Aristotle investigates thought, which is the instrument of knowledge.

Rhetoric was written sometime between 360 and 334 B.C. In this work, he writes about the art of public speaking. It seems that he is writing in direct response to Plato’s condemnation of the art. He believes that different rhetoric treats specific cases. These specific cases are topoi, which are different topics that can be persuaded. In Book two of Rhetoric, he lists the twenty-eight common topics, or topoi. He also addresses style, diction, metaphor, and arrangement, but he basically ignores the other canons of rhetoric. This work was the first psychological rhetoric ever presented.

The theory of the syllogism was first introduced by Aristotle. He was the first to analyze an argument in a logical order. The generic syllogism is if A belongs to all B, and B belongs to all C, then A belongs to all C. A syllogism can either be dialectical or rhetorical. Dialectical syllogisms are always true. Rhetorical syllogisms are probably true, but not always true. The rhetorical syllogism is also called an enthymeme. An enthymeme is “a statement that transfers attitudes the audience already holds to the case at hand: it is like a syllogism, except that its result is not new knowledge, but action” (Brumbaugh, 187). The enthymeme has a missing part that must be filled in by the audience. Syllogism and enthymeme are very closely related.

Another concept, pisteis, was developed by Aristotle. Pisteis is divided into three sections: ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos is the credibility of the rhetor. Pathos is the emotions of the audience. Aristotle wrote about the different emotions to use on specific groups of people, in order to persuade them of some idea. Logos is the power of reasoning shared by the rhetor and the audience. All three are intertwined, even though they are categorized separately.

Aristotle had his own beliefs on rhetoric. He believed that “[the function of rhetoric] is not to persuade but to see the available means of persuasion in each case” (Covino, 3). Aristotle studied the art of argument and developed an optimistic view. He “finds hope in the belief (1) that rhetoric is useful, because the true and the just are naturally superior to their opposites, (2) that generally speaking, that which is true and better is naturally always easier to prove and more likely to persuade and (3) that men have a sufficient natural capacity for the truth and indeed in most cases attain to it” (Stone, 93). He also believed that even though persuasive argument is all classified under rhetoric, that each argument is its own case and should be dealt with differently than all other cases. Aristotle had strong opinions on rhetoric which influenced many others.

After his death, Aristotle’s works were perpetuated at the Peripatetic school by some of his loyal followers. Between 500 and 1000 his ideas disappeared in Western thought, but were preserved by Arabic and Syrian scholars. These scholars reintroduced Aristotle to Western thought betwen 1100 and 1200. Since this time, Aristotle has been extremely influential in Western thought on rhetoric.

Top | Part 2

ristotle (384-322 B.C.), a Greek philosopher, educator, and scientist is arguably the most renowned and respected student of rhetoric in history. It is because of the early works of Aristotle that the field of rhetoric is as defined and understood as it is today. By combining the thoughts of earlier philosophers such as Socrates and Plato, Aristotle created his own ideas and definitions of rhetoric. He incorporated these ideas into essays and books such as Rhetoric and Organon, which are still valued by rhetoricians in present day applications. It is plain to see that much of what is Western thought evolved from Aristotle’s theories and experiments with rhetoric.

Aristotle’s Life

Aristotle was born in 384 B.C. in the small northern Greek town of Stagiros. The son of a physician, Aristotle was introduced to the field of medicine at an early age. It is this knowledge of anatomy and organic structure , many say, that enabled him to develop a remarkable talent for observation and discovery. His father was the personal physician of the great Macedonian king, Amyntas II, the grandfather of Alexander the Great. When Aristotle was still a boy, both of his parents died. From this point he was raised by a guardian named Proxenus until he departed for Athens to attend Plato’s Academy. He remained at Plato’s school for over twenty years where he served as a student, research assistant, lecturer, and a research scientist. While at Plato’s school, Aristotle developed a personal affection for Plato and learned many things from his instructor. However, he ultimately rejected Plato’s fundamental concepts and developed his own theories on matters of logic, ethics, metaphysics, as well as rhetoric. After the death of Plato in 347 B.C., Aristotle moved in with a former pupil of Plato, Hermeias. During his three year stay, he married princess Pithias, Hermeias’s daughter. The couple had two children: a son named Nicomachus as well as a daughter. In 342 B.C Aristotle was invited to direct the education of young prince Alexander at the court of Philip II of Macedonia. During this time he continued his studies with a few private students of philosophy and completed his most famous work, the Rhetoric. He taught Alexander until King Philip was assassinated, after which the prince became king. In 335 B.C. he left Macedonia and returned to Athens to open his own school named “Lyceum.” Here he taught many popular subjects such as ethics, politics, and rhetoric before focusing his attention solely to metaphysics. With the death of Alexander in 323 B.C., and public scrutiny growing over his relationship with Alexander and other influential Macedonians growing, he turned his school over to Theophrastus and moved to the island of Euboea. Here he lived only a short time before dying in 322 B.C. at the age of sixty-two.

Aristotle’s Writings and Philosophies

The majority of Aristotle’s writings have since been lost or destroyed in the years following his death. Each work that he produced, however, could be divided into three specific categories: popular writings, memoranda, and the treatises. The popular writings were written for a general audience and modeled after the dialogues of Plato. An example of these would be speeches and public addresses concentrating on particular subjects such as politics or ethics. His second type of text, the memoranda, was a collection of research material and historical records that Aristotle compiled throughout his many years as a student and research scientist. Unfortunately most of the popular writing and memoranda of Aristotle have not survived the ages since his lifetime. The third group of writings, the treatises, is the only type that still exist today. They include lecture notes or textbooks written for the many classes that he taught at the “Lyceum” and other places across Greece

The early writings of Aristotle exhibited his admiration for his teacher, Plato. He imitated Plato’s style by writing in dialogue form and using many of the same themes developed by his instructor. However, as he continued his studies at the Academy, Aristotle began to develop his own individual views which differed from those of Plato. He began to concentrate on concrete, logical concepts as opposed to Plato’s more conceptual views. Although his views often clashed with those of his student, Plato continued to support Aristotle and encouraged him to promote his own theories of formal logic and rhetoric. These new ideas were expressed in his two most famous works, Organon and Rhetoric.

The Organon, or “instrument”, was a collection of papers that included the Categories, Prior and Posterior Analytics, the Topics, and On Interpretation. In these, Aristotle introduced formal logic which he described as the instrument of knowledge. The Rhetoric was written between 360 B.C. and 334 B.C. and dealt with the art of public speaking. This work is clearly written in response to Plato’s condemnation of this art. Aristotle was primarily concerned with the rhetoric of “public address is the civic life of Greece” (Kennedy 7). He believed rhetoric could be divided into specific cases where different types of rhetoric strategies could be used. He called these strategies topoi. In Book Two of Rhetoric he lists twenty-eight common topoi. He also addresses other rhetoric elements such as style, diction, metaphor, and arrangement, but basically ignored the other canons of rhetoric. In any case, this work was the first example of psychological rhetoric ever presented.

One of the most notable concepts developed by Aristotle was the notion of pisteis, or proofs. He believed that there were three means in which persuasion could be accomplished in public address. Pisteis is divided into three sections: ethos, pathos, logos. Ethos is concerned with establishing the moral character of the rhetor. Pathos appeals to the emotions of the audience and logos is described as logical reasoning meant to engage the audience into the rhetors beliefs. Each of these three elements, though seperate, can be combined to elicit a maximum response from the audience.

Aristotle was the first to analyze an argument in a logical, orderly manner. He did this by using enthymemes and syllogisms. He described a syllogism as a “deductive argument consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion” (319). The generic syllogism is as follows: If A belongs to all B, and B belongs to all C, then A belongs to all C. A syllogism, when used in rhetoric context, was called an enthymeme. An enthymeme is “like a syllogism, except that its result is not new knowledge, but action” (Brumbaugh 187). In an enthymeme the rhetor assumes that the audience is an active participant, will “supply the missing part” and be persuaded of the enthymeme’s truth by virtue of having participated in making it fully meaningful” (Covino 48). Enthymemes and syllogisms, as you can see are very closely related.

Through his many years of studying the elements of rhetoric, Aristotle developed a general definition that is still accepted today. He believed that “[the function of rhetoric] is not to persuade but to see the available means of persuasion in each case” (3). His Rhetoric expressed that rhetoric is a “tool applicable to any subject and from the universality of its basic, organized concepts” (Kennedy 309). It encompasses an extremely large territory and “is the propery of no other discipline . . . It impinges on all areas of human concern” (Winterowd 14). In this sense, he explained that even though all persuasive arguments are classified as rhetoric, each should be dealt with in its own case and individual of all other cases (14). It is Aristotle who first recognized the relationship between rhetoric and the various disciplines of the arts and “”sciences”". He believed that rhetoric played a large part in every method of learning and there were specific tools which were essential to each type of study (Kennedy 12). Of these tool he felt that logic was one of the most important, if not the most important tool used in rhetoric thinking. Aristotle considered rhetoric a tool in argumentation, particularly the kind that arose in the courts and halls of government of his time.

Since his lifetime the ideas of Aristotle have been carried on through the centuries and have remained a fixture in modern day theory. His interest in the logical, rational side of discourse remain with us today in many forms. For this reason it can be said with little argument that “Aristotle is rhetoric.”

After his death, Aristotle’s words were perpetuated at the Perpatetic school by his loyal followers. Unfortunatley many of his ideas disappeared in Western philosophy between 500 and 1000 A.D., but were preserved by Arabic and Syrian scholars which reintroduced Aristotle to the Western world between. Since this time, his ideas have been extremely influential in Western rhetoric analysis.