THE art of speaking well, known to the ancient Greeks as rhetoric (rhêtorikê), comes from the set of ancient techniques that made up the political, philosophical and cultural activity of the polis. Art, in this sense, is understood as technique and is synonymous with the way of operating, the way of doing, or how to do it. Therefore, rhetoric is the study and teaching of a way to speak well, with eloquence, articulating the words in a way that convinces the interlocutor.
Read too: Jacobin Speeches in the French Revolution
What is the art of rhetoric?
The art of rhetoric is the technique of using the good use of words and language. Good rhetoric is the ability to arrange, list and organize words well in order to convey a message clearly or to convince someone.
If we think in civilizing terms, rhetoric is part of our social constitution from the beginnings. Rhetoric is essential for political practice, for negotiations, for the formulation of treaties and for the establishment of regimental norms that regulate our lives.
Rhetoric Studies
thinking about Ancient Greece, rhetoric was an important political, philosophical and legal instrument. At Middle Ages, you scholastics learned, among other basic techniques, the rhetoric, which was an instrument to promote philosophical and theological debates. Nowadays, rhetoric still permeates the political, legal and religious environment, in addition to being part of the business and advertising world. In short, rhetoric is the means by which a sender can deliver a speech and be well understood by its receiver, besides that this one can be convinced by that.
You sophists used rhetoric extensively to win political debates in the Ancient Greece and they gained fame and money by teaching their art to young Athenian citizens. However, for the sophists, the important thing was the convincing of a fact, even if the fact was not true. This would leave aside the truth and essence of things, which bothered Socrates and his most important disciple, Plato.
For these two thinkers of the anthropological period (a period in which Philosophy investigated human issues, that is, ethics, politics and techniques) perfect eloquence without considering essential truths would not be a positive thing, as it would leave out what really would matter: the realitysupersensitive.Aristotle, in turn, directly associated rhetoric with logic as the art of assigning meanings through the interlocution of ideas expressed in words.
Also know: Linguistic Prejudice - a much-discussed topic nowadays
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
rhetoric and oratory
The two similar terms are not, these days, identical. While rhetoric is the pure and simple art of speaking well, oratory is public speaking, for the public. Therefore, oratory, as an attempt to inform and convince the public, is intimately related to rhetoric.
The relationship between the two terms was, in antiquity, much closer, as the Greek word rhêtorike was translated into Latin by the term orator. Nowadays, the two terms have gained derivations that differentiate them semantically.
Sophistical and dialectical rhetoric
The most notorious disciple of Socrates, Plato, formulated a process based on the ideas of Parmenides called dialectic. Dialectics is a process logical and dialogic, in which one interlocutor launches a thesis, the other interlocutor launches an opposite thesis (antithesis) and, from these different ideas, it is possible to arrive at a synthesis. This process can occur through the rhetoric used by the interlocutors in the debate, because without a clear, precise and convincing exposition of what is meant, dialectics does not happen.
To the sophists, it would not be necessary an understanding of the essences of things for a fully dialectical exposition, as only the persuasion provided by rhetoric would be enough to win a debate and convince an interlocutor, sufficing as a finality.
the sophist Protagoras, for example, states that man is the measure of all things, that is, for sophistical rhetoric, who makes reality is the human being, depending on his communicative ability. Like Plato write in Gorgias, what the sophists did was “make up” the surfaces of things through words to manipulate the opinion of others, aiming only at appearances and not at essences.
Also access: Know the differences between humans and animals
Rhetoric for Aristotle
Aristotle operated a systematization of philosophical knowledge, until then, broad and comprehensive, not distinguishing very well the areas of knowledge contained in it. For the philosopher, the poetics, a logic and rhetoric were areas of knowledge that were related because they were united by the bond of language.
Poetics would have the function aesthetics, to represent the beautiful through language and was used in epic, at tragedy and in the poems. THE logic it was an instrument of true knowledge, essential for correct learning and for establishing of philosophical systems and systems that, in general, made sense because they respected the logical form of the language.
Rhetoric would enter this scope because it is responsible for listing the words and terms in order to create a system of linguistic representation able to convince the interlocutors of what was intended, being used for the defense, in courts, or in political assemblies, in addition to classes at the Lyceum and in philosophical debates.
Rhetoric could, in this sense, be used to to convince a jury court acquitting a criminal, which was a failure of its time, as juries seemed to be more adept at eloquence and to character traits which the defendants resembled by their words than by the charge in question.
This is because rhetoric, according to Aristotle, has a creative power capable of moving it away from true facts. However, one area without which rhetoric can never be practiced is the logic, as this shapes any possibility of meaning that language can emit.
by Francisco Porfirio
Philosophy teacher