Who was Aristotle? Aristotle is the final Greek philosopher we'll be talking about. Aristotle was a student of Plato, but diverges from Plato's way of thinking in some significant ways. Aristotle was born in Macedonia in 384 B.C. but traveled to Athens when he was 17 to become Plato's student at the Academy and later on, a teacher there. Aristotle was actually the first person to teach rhetoric at the Academy, and was probably part of the reason Plato softened towards the idea of rhetoric later on in his life. Aristotle began his own school, but was eventually forced to leave it to his pupil because of anti-macedonian sentiment in Athens (Bizzell and Herzberg). What was Aristotle's epistemology? Aristotle believed in Absolute Truth, but unlike Plato and Socrates, he believed we could find absolute truths in our physical world. Specifically, he believed Absolute Truths could only be found through "scientific demonstration and the analysis of formal logic," (Bizzell and Herzberg 170). This essentially means that Aristotle looked to empirical evidence and facts to reveal absolute truth. This is pretty similar to how we think today; we put a lot of stock in data and scientific findings from scientists. However, Aristotle didn't think science could answer everything. Rather, he believed that dialectic and rhetoric could be used to find those answers to questions that could not be answered by science (Lecture Notes.) How did his epistemology shape the way he used rhetoric? As we mentioned above, Aristotle used dialectic and rhetoric to answer questions that science couldn't answer to attain probable knowledge (or probable truths). He believed dialectic could be used to attain probable knowledge through really intense question-and-answer exchanges. Rhetoric, however, could be used to convey information to people who didn't have a lot of knowledge about a subject, by building off of assumptions those people already had. Though Aristotle used rhetoric, he didn't necessarily support the Sophists. He thought they used rhetoric to pervert judgements of those they addressed, whereas Aristotle believed rhetoric should be used in more moral ways. (Bizzell and Herzberg). To sum up, Aristotle believed that rhetoric: 1. Allows truth to prevail over falsehood 2. Allows one to teach and instruct 3. Allows one to defend multiple sides of an argument 4. Allows one to defend themselves 5. Allows a speaker to persuade multiple audiences (Lecture Notes). Let's talk categories (lots and lots of categories) When it came to rhetoric, Aristotle devised a ton of rules and categories to better understand it, classify it, and use it (you can thank him for ethos, pathos, and logos). In this section we're going to break down the categories so you can get a better understanding of what each of them is. The Appeals: The appeals are artistic proofs that are used to better connect to your audience and convince them of your cause. Remember: the appeals are not mutually exclusive! They all work together to create a strong argument, and are all important. Ethos: This appeal is meant to give the impression that the speaker is a credible and trustworthy person, to better convince the audience to believe the points they make. There are 3 subcategories of ethos. You can think of them as different kinds of ways to make yourself look like a credible person. Pathos: This appeal plays to the emotions of the audience, and was actually Aristotle's least favorite appeal. A good example of pathos would be the really sad ASPCA commercials they play on TV. By showing you pictures of sad and abused dogs (and playing that song in the background), they are trying to make you feel bad for not adopting these dogs, therefore encouraging you to go out and adopt them (or send the ASPCA money). Here are some good ways to use pathos in a speech, paper, or presentation:
The Speech Genres
Deliberative (political): This genre encourages people to take action (or not take action) in the future. Thinking of a political campaign speech can be a good example. A candidate may say "If you vote for me, I will do ______!" The candidate is encouraging you to vote for them in the future by promising they will do something you want when they get elected. Forensic (legal): This genre's job is to determine guilt or innocence based on an event that has happened previously. Judge Judy, everyone's favorite daytime TV judge, employs this rhetoric in her courtroom when she is trying to decide if the defendant's past actions make them guilty of a crime or not. Epediectic (ceremonial): This genre is employed when praising or blaming someone in the present. Eulogies are a good example of this genre, as the person is (hopefully) being praised at the service for their lifetime of good works. (Lecture Notes).
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