Rhetorical Tradition Exam 1

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Concerns regarding rhetoric

Back 1

Focuses on the deception → negative; people use rhetoric to “mess up” communication = makes communication more difficult

Ex – Obama uses rhetoric to put blame on North Korea

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Importance of Rhetoric

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Historically: helped make big decisions; engaged citizens in political causes

Rhetoric is used because people disagree: prevents violence, progress in society

Consequence of not having a debate: Laws could be made that people don’t agree with, takes away individuality, one opinion becomes the "public opinion," become blind to opposing opinions

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Single Definition Perspective

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Theorized by Donald Bryant in 1953

1. Rhetoric is instrumental – we can use it as a tool to get things done

2. Rhetoric is literary – interested in language; looking at linguistics and semantics; functioning of language

3. Rhetoric is philosophical – wants to know how we know what we know

4. Social study – interested in the behavior of people

Rhetoric is both informative and persuasive

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Systems Perspective

Back 4

Theorized by Douglas Ehninger in 1968, periods of Rhetoric

Classics: reasons rhetoric came about; Greece and Rome; the grammatical component of rhetoric

British: interested in audience, speaker, speech orientation; specifically interested in the audience – how they received information

Contemporary: interested in identification; getting people to identify in one way or another with each other; enhancing community, international and national relationships

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Evolutionary Perspective

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* What we know, we build on; constant development in the evolution of information

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Characteristics of rhetoric

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1. Planned (Plane ad)

2. Involves an audience (Hillary Clinton ad)

3. Has motives (Mormon ad)

4. Persuades

5. Responsive

6. Establishes truth

7. Addresses contingent issues (JFK missile crisis)

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Rhetoric manifests these characteristics by

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Relying on emotional appeals

Using famous people

Being simple or complex

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Aspects of rhetoric: Purposes (Action)

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* Initiates action/maintains actions

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Aspects of rhetoric: Functions (outcomes)

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Ideas are tested

Advocacy is assisted (Handicap vid)

Power is distributed (Oprah vid)

Facts are discovered

Knowledge is shaped

Communities are built (Hillary Clinton)

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Aspects of Rhetoric: Limits

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* “Flawless”: advocating for women’s power; criticism: act like a man, “I woke up like this”
* Always a risk that rhetor’s intentions can be misinterpreted
* Text Type

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Rhetorical Meaning

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Iconic- Sign makes you think of something else because it resembles it; Can differ based on the individual looking at the sign

Symbolic-Social agreement, changes over time (ex. meaning of “bitch”)

Indexical-Meaning and the thing it represents is linked by cause or association

* Signs can have more than one meaning

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Truth vs. ethics

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No connection between truth and persuasion

Ex: Abortion – pro choice or pro life

Ethics is more attainable Not one true answer

If someone knows how to be persuasive, they can persuade someone to believe in something that is unethical

We need to recognize if a person is ethical through their rhetoric (Quintillion)

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Ethics

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Root of ethics: Ethos: credibility; character

Polysemy of ethics

Types of ethics

Ethics within the definition of rhetoric

Deontological: focused on rules of conduct

Teleological: interested in outcome

Kant’s categorical imperative- If the action could not be made a universal law then it is unethical

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Ethical responsibilities as a rhetor

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Responsibilities when observing/listening to rhetoric

Responsibilities when enacting rhetoric:

-Values the audience

-Reflects concern, selflessness, involvement, and genuine desire to help the audience actualize its potential and ideals

-Can potentially help the audience achieve something = strict ethical principles

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Weaver’s standards

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“rhetoric at its truest seeks to perfect man by showing them better versions of themselves”

Ideal view of rhetoric

Fuses value into our lives

A way to think about rhetoric when we enact it → how are thing you say helping you to become a better version of yourself?

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Weaver: Hierarchy of Arguments

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1. Can be understood in many ways = not a good argument