Classical Canon

1
Classical Canon
2
Nature of Rhetoric(Aristotle)

• counterpart (ANTISTROPHE) to dialectic and ethics

3
ARISTOTLE'S LAYOUT OF THE PERSON

• BODY (MATERIAL)
• SOUL (IMMATERIAL)
• psyche, anima, pneuma

4
Intuitive reason (nous)
Grasp first principles
Human Nature
Philosophic Reason (Sophia)
Demonstration from first principles
Theoretical reason
Scientific Knowledge (Episteme)
Necessary (certain)
Production Techne (art)
Calculative Reason (deals With
contingent) (Pragma) (doxa)
Action
Practical Wisdom (Phronesis)
Animal Nature
Feelings Desires
Vegetable Nature
Nutrition Growth
5
Rhetoric--ethics

• Rhetor
• The good man speaking well
• Quintillion

6
Nature of Rhetoric(Aristotle)

• Definition faculty of observing, in any
  situation, the available means of persuasion.

7
Situations
Paradigm Focus Purpose
Forensic Law court Past Seek justice
Deliberative Legislature Future Determine what should be done
Epidictic Ceremonial Present Praise and blame
8
Proofs (pistuein)
Artistic/ inartistic Speaker made Evidencepropositions the audience establishes are relatively free of speaker bias
Ethos Sagacity, virtue, benevolence
Pathos (devices designed to put the audience in the proper state of mind for the reception of the speaker's arguments)
Logos enthymemes examples (paradeigma) signs (fallible, infallible)
9
OFFICES

• Perspectives
• In general, the canon was present in the
  Rhetorica, but the form in which we know it is
  largely the result of later rhetoricians
  particularly Cicero

10
INVENTION

• topoi
• common (universal) possible, impossible, past
  fact, future fact, size.
• special (associated w/ special subjects such as
  ethics and politics.)
• lines of argument
• (methods of reasoning)
• more or less,
• opposites,
• etc.

11

• stasis
• (stock issue--turning point) Aristotle (III 17)
• 1. Was the act committed?
• 2. Did the act cause harm?
• Was the harm more or less than alleged?
• 4. Was the act justified?

12
Hermagoras of Temnos

• conjecture
• from a consideration of the motive of accused
• from a consideration of the character of accused
• 3. from a consideration of the act itself
  (signs and general evidence pointing to the
  accused)
• Definition
• (murder, theft, treason, etc.)
• Quality
• 1. pleas of justification (no harm admitted)
• 2. counterproposition (harm admitted but...)
• 3. counterplea (claim of benefit rendered)
• 3. shifting of blame
• to a person or circumstance capable of liability
• to a person or circumstance incapable of
  liability
• objection
• (to the trial on procedural grounds)

13
Disposition

• Macrostructure
• Proem (introduction)
• Statement (thesis)
• proof (body)
• epilogue (conclusion)
• Microstructure
• statement,
• proof

14
Style

• Elevated, middle, low
• virtues
• Clarity
• use common words but put them together so the
  whole bears a subtle air of strangeness.
• Avoid using elevated language when young and for
  talking about trivial matters
• use metaphors and similes (tropes, figures
  of speech thought later) Appropriateness
• conveys the states of feeling (pathe) describes
  character (ethe) and is proportionate to the
  subject matter.
• Purity (hellenism)
• Dignity (weight)(opposite is conciseness)
• Vices
• Frigidities
• overcompounding (beggar-poet-toady)
• using archaic or dialect words (the baleful
  criminal)
• Overwriting with long, untimely or crowded
  epithets (not laws,m but laws the rules of states
  we the people
• Inappropriate metaphors (events fresh and full of
  blood)

15
Cicero on Style

• virtues
• clarity,
• correctness,
• appropriateness,
• embellishment (tropes and figures of thought and
  speech)

16
Memory

• mnemonics--association with topics (places)

17
Delivery

• Delivery can be treated scientifically--has to do
  with management of the voice to express each of
  the pathe. The voice varies in volume, pitch and
  rhythm.