The origin of the word rhetoric is a Greek word rhētorikós,
"oratorical", from rhḗtōr means "public
speaker", related to rhêma "that which is said
or spoken, word, saying", and eventually resulting from the verb legō, "to speak,
say". (Corbett, E. P. J, 1990)
Rhetoric can be referred to as an art
of discourse, an art aimed at improving
the facility of speakers as well as writers who make efforts to informing,
persuading, or motivating a specific audiences in certain circumstances. (Corbett,
E. P. J, 1990) Rhetoric has played an important role as a subject of formal research topic as well as a productive
public practice within western tradition (Thomas Conley, 1991) a comprehensive and best definition came from Aristotle, who considered rhetoric as a an equivalent of
both logic and politics, and refers it as "the faculty of observing in any
given case the available means of persuasion."(W.Rhys Roberts, 1991) Typically
rhetoric offers heuristics to understand, discover,
and develop arguments for certain situations, such as the three persuasive
audience appeals of Aristotle that are; logos, pathos, and ethos. Romans
first developed five rules of which are important to design a persuasive speech.
These rules are; “invention, arrangement, style,
memory, and delivery”. Rhetoric is considered
one of the three ancient arts of discourse along with grammar and logic.
Rhetoric has remained a central part of Western education from ancient Greece till
the late 19th century with the main objective to train public speakers as well
as writers to convince audiences and present arguments in such a way that move
them to action. (Johnstone, Henry W. Jr. (1995).
Aristotle's Rhetoric is an earliest Greek discourse established
on the art of arguments that was created back in 4th century BC. Usually
Aristotle is given credit to develop basics of the systems of rhetoric which "thereafter
served as its touchstone",[1] and influenced in developing the rhetorical
theory from primeval to modern times. The Rhetoric is regarded by
most rhetoricians as "the most important single work on persuasion ever
written."( Golden , 2007). Gross & Walzer agree representing
that, just as has been considered by Alfred North White all the Western
philosophy is a footnote to Plato" Similarly all the extensions in the concept of
rhetoric and its current applications to different fields can be referred as a response
to issues raised" by Aristotle's Rhetoric. (Gross, Alan G. &
Arthur E. Walzer, 2000)
Though other works by Aristotle have survived from ancient times, it
seems that the Rhetoric was not aimed to publish. Instead it seems to a collection
of notes of his student acquired by his lectures. From the Rhetoric it is
evident that Aristotle's thought developed through two different periods of
time during his stay in Athens. It also show that Aristotle expanded on the study of Plato who initially criticized it in Gorgias (ca. 386 BC) and called it an “immoral, dangerous,
and unworthy of serious study”. (Griswold, Charle, 2003) In the Phaedrus (ca.370
BC) which is the last dialogue on rhetoric by Plato a more moderate view of
rhetoric has been presented, accepting the value of rhetoric to a true philosopher
(the "midwife of the soul") for "winning the soul through
discourse." Aristotle was inspired by this dialogue, first as a student
and afterwards as a teacher at the Academy of Plato, thus becoming a more
positive origin for the development of rhetoric as an art expected to get
systematic, scientific study.
Initially rhetoric as a subject faced many challenges in the classical
Greece: on one side there were Sophists while Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
were on the other side. The three philosophers considered rhetoric and poetry
as tools that were being used for manipulating others, their emotion and neglecting
facts. In particular they blamed the sophists, including Gorgias and Isocrates
for being involved in this manipulation. Plato, principally, accused sophists
of being responsible for the arrest and the death of Socrates due to the sophistical
rhetoric. Aristotle’s rhetoric is rooted in philosophy and the desire of
enlightenment as opposed to sophist’s emotional rhetoric and poetry. The
contribution of Aristotle toward rhetoric is important because he identifies it
rhetoric as one of the three major elements of philosophy together with logic and
dialectic. As has been described by Aristotle, Rhetoric is "Rhetoric
is a counterpart (antistrophe) of dialectic."( J.
H. Freese, 1926) . According to him, the purpose of logic is to reach
scientific certainty with the help of reasoning while the concern of dialectic
and rhetoric is probability and that is why these branches of philosophy are best
suited to human affairs. Dialectic is used as a tool to establish a philosophical
debate; using this tool the audience can test probable knowledge so as to learn.
On the other hand, rhetoric is the tool that is used practical debate; through
it speakers and writers can persuade a general audience using their probable
knowledge for resolving realistic issues. Both the dialectic and rhetoric as a
combination create a system of knowledge based on persuasion rather than upon exploitation
and omission.
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