Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece and Classical Rhetoric

  • Western Perspective on Rhetoric: Greece is considered the heart of persuasive communication and Western civilization, though Eastern civilizations have different origins.

  • Democracy and Inequality: Greece is seen as the birthplace of deliberative democracy, allowing citizen voices. However, it was a slave-holding society where women and slaves were not considered equal citizens and their voices were not heard.

The Agora

  • Definition: A central meeting space in ancient Greek city-states.

  • Function: Served as a marketplace and a political hub where free-born men gathered to elect leaders, change laws, and vote on governmental decisions.

  • Significance: Considered the "cauldron" or birthplace of rhetoric, as it provided a space for persuasive communication and the hearing of public voices, revolutionary for its time.

Orality to Literacy: Parataxis to Hypotaxis

  • Shift: The transition from a speech-based society to one with the written word (reading and writing).

  • Impact: Changes the relationship with language, processing of the world, and allows for more complex thought.

  • Parataxis:

    • Characteristics: Found in oral societies. Involves simple juxtaposition of ideas, concrete images, and direct word-object associations.

    • Cognition: Relies heavily on memory as there are no written texts to reference.

  • Hypotaxis:

    • Characteristics: Enabled by literacy. Allows for more complex thinking, the creation of hierarchies, and the ability to reference past ideas.

    • Cognition: Fosters sophisticated, analytical, and critical thought, leading to the development and use of theory.

Theory

  • Definition 1 (General): A description of a phenomenon and the interactions of its variables used to explain or predict.

    • Scientific Theory: Objective, follows the scientific method.

    • Liberal Arts Theory: Examines and predicts human behavior and thought, often through describing "texts" (e.g., speeches) and their "variables" (e.g., parts).

  • Definition 2 (Theoretical): An attempt to map the world that seeks to create more questions than answers while focusing the types of questions asked.

    • Aims to create a personal or cultural map of the human world, guiding towards specific questions (e.g., rhetorical theory asks questions about persuasion).

Critical Theory

  • Category: The type of theory that rhetorical theory resides in.

  • Definition: A philosophical approach to culture that seeks to confront the social, historical, and ideological forces and structures that produce and constrain it.

    • Interested in understanding how humans operate within a culture and the forces that shape it.

Dialectic

  • Definition: A method of philosophical argument that investigates two seemingly opposing notions and the relationships between them.

  • Purpose: To explore connections and complications between ideas that initially appear contradictory.

  • Central Dialectic in Rhetoric: Theory versus Practice.

    • Theory: Thinking about things (e.g., analyzing speeches).

    • Practice (Praxis): Doing things (e.g., giving speeches).

    • Interconnection: These are often separated but are deeply connected; thought often precedes action, and