Buber's Rhetoric Should Pursue The Truth

Rhetoric is the systematic use of language to persuade. The rhetor must consider his audience, purpose, and linguistic execution in order to persuade effectively. This definition requires a reconciliation of Aristotle’s rhetorical techniques and Plato’s assertion that rhetoric should pursue the Truth. This type of systematic ethical rhetoric can be achieved through ethical relations between the rhetor, the audience, and the subject as outlined by Buber’s word pairs. Rhetoric brings situations into being through definitional discourse described by Schiappa. In this way, rhetoric is tainted by the rhetors presuppositions such as Vatz proposes. For this reason, a rhetor should aim at the Truth through the use of rhetoric. The dean of journalism at the University of North Texas, Dorothy Bland, charged local law enforcement with racial discrimination, …show more content…
Buber’s word pairs further illustrate how rhetorical techniques can be implemented ethically. Like the world, rhetoric “is twofold for man in accordance with his twofold attitude” (Buber 17). Rhetoric without philosophy belongs in the world of experience because it creates an “I-It” relationship between the speaker and the audience (Buber 56). In this way, a speaker would be succumbing to discourse that aims at “ignorance with the bait of the pleasure of the moment” which Plato warns against (464). However, when a speaker considers his audience, he partakes in rhetoric that belongs in the world of relation. In this way, when a rhetor addresses his audience with an “I-You” word pair, he is effectively appeal to his audience through relation since “Relation is reciprocity,” this act benefits the rhetor and the audience (Buber 58). An audience cannot be properly persuaded unless the rhetor utilizes this word pair. The harmony of linguistic depiction and audience relation through philosophy is essential in any rhetorical