CMST 1150 Lecture : Final Notes
Document Summary
The beginnings of the rhetorical tradition: corax, the 1st professional rhetorician, rhetoric as powerful skill-set and necessary to democracy, sophists: teachers of public education, available to those other than aristocracy! Sophist"s taught dialectic: contradictory arguments based on widely-held premises. Synthesis (becomes new thesis: james herrick: r/pers. Interest in influencing others and gaining personal advantage: suspicion of being taken advantage of, principle to remember: persuasion works best which does not call attention to itself. don"t tell someone you"re trying to persuade them. With persuasion we hope to influence attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Evolution of the rhetorical tradition: classical period, 5th 4th centuries b. c. e. : emphasis on public speaking & effective public engagement: sophists saw truth as relative & probable, plato: against the sophists, rhet. & democ. , an idealist: aristotle: differed with plato, saw truth as based on observation. Aristotle"s definition of rhetoric: our ability to discover in the particular case what are the available means of persuasion.
