I often look at people who can’t get along with others, or who always seem to be at odds with society, and I say, “That person just doesn’t get it.” What I usually mean by this is that they don’t…
English 5001
Quintilian’s Advice: Read, Write, Excel
by Anne Engert • • 1 Comment
Our Classical writers on rhetoric for this week have much sound advice for those who seek to become skilled orators, as well as to those who would instruct them. For the aspiring rhetorician, Aristotle’s detailed cataloging of the intricacies of…
quintillian and aristotle
by jocias • • 0 Comments
Throughout Aristotle and Quintillian’s works, we are presented with various interpretations of rhetoric. For Aristotle, rhetoric is “defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion”. In his neatly packaged treatise on rhetoric, Aristotle…
Week 2: Aristotle’s “Rhetoric”
by kmontero • • 0 Comments
The first line in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, “Rhetoric is the counterpart of Dialectic”, began my frustration. Having previously read Plato’s Grogias, wherein Socrates, in a very nonlinear, disorienting way, establishes the notion that the object of rhetoric is persuasion and belief and it is only…
The Dark Side of Rhetoric, Commentary 2
by Alex Janney • • 1 Comment
In talking about rhetoric, Aristotle seems to paint a picture of a very vulnerable audience. In saying things like, “Their minds draw the false conclusion that you are to be trusted. They take your story to be true whether it…
Gorgias
by simi dhaliwal • • 0 Comments
“That is just what I suspected you meant, Gorgias. But don’t be surprised if a little later on I repeat this procedure and ask additional questions when the answer seems to be already clear. This, as I say, is not…
The Art of Rhetoric
by lminnis209 • • 0 Comments
Gorgias tries to defend his ideas on what rhetoric stands for and tries to define the term to Socrates. Socrates allows Gorgias to hang himself with his definition of the term and Socrates pokes holes into Gorgias ideas. SOCRATES:…
Gorgias
by jocias • • 0 Comments
In Gorgias, Socrates concludes that rhetoric is the power of persuasion. By questioning Gorgias, it’s as though he reveals the truth about rhetoric by revealing that in itself it offers neither truth nor knowledge. When Gorgias states, “he should not…
The Responsibilities of Rhetoric
by Anne Engert • • 1 Comment
It would be easy to imagine that the conversations of ancient Greek philosophers, while certainly of historical interest, might have little relevancy to our lives today. Such an assumption would, however, be a mistake. As I read through the four…
Week 1 Read On
by Joel • • 1 Comment
All of the readings this week had me agreeing with them. I found myself on the side of Socrates and Isocrates without having much knowledge about their opponents. I looked at some of the techniques that allowed me to agree…