Communication Ethics, Rhetoric, Plato, and Augustine

Vocabulary practice flashcards based on the study guide for Communication Ethics, Rhetoric, Plato's dialogues (Gorgias and Phaedrus), and Augustine's On Christian Doctrine.

Ethics

The philosophical study of what is right, wrong, good, or just in human action and conduct.

Morality

The specific beliefs, principles, values, or rules that a person or community holds about right and wrong.

Communication Ethics

The systematic study of moral questions in communication, including speaker truthfulness, deception, audience respect, and responsibility for persuasive power.

Sermonic Language

Language that is oriented toward influencing an audience and moving them toward a particular belief, attitude, value, or action rather than merely communicating information.

Sophists

Ancient Greek teachers of rhetoric who trained people to speak and argue effectively, criticized by Plato for producing persuasion without genuine knowledge.

Gorgias

A Platonic dialogue featuring Socrates, Gorgias, Polus, and Callicles that critically examines whether rhetoric is a legitimate art or merely a form of persuasion and flattery.

Flattery (in Gorgias)

Socrates' description of rhetoric that merely aims to give an audience what it wants (pleasure) rather than what actually benefits or improves them (the good).

Phaedrus

A Platonic dialogue arguing that rhetoric can be legitimate when the speaker knows the truth, understands the subject, and possesses knowledge of the soul and audience.

Art (Platonic definition)

A practice grounded in genuine knowledge of its subject that aims at a legitimate good, distinguishing it from a routine set of tricks or flattery.

On Christian Doctrine, Book IV

A text by Augustine of Hippo arguing that Christian teachers should ethically use rhetorical eloquence and style in service of communicating Christian truth.

Teach, Delight, Move

Augustine's three purposes of speaking, outlining a speaker's responsibility to educate, engage, and emotionally/practically motivate an audience toward truth.

Plato and Augustine Rhetorical Comparison

A comparative framework showing that both thinkers agree rhetoric is powerful, dangerous, capable of deceit, and requires truth and audience awareness, differing primarily in context and purpose.