THREE SCHOOLS OF ATHENIAN RHETORIC

1. THREE SCHOOLS OFATHENIAN RHETORIC

2. THREE SCHOOLS OFATHENIAN RHETORIC • Socrates • 436-338 B.C. • Plato • 427-347 B.C. • Aristotle • 384-322 B.C.

3. The Three Schools of Athenian Rhetoric • Socratean Rhetoric,founded school in 393 B.C. • As a response to the Sophists • Intellectuals who taught philosophyand the art of persuasion (or deception),for a fee • Socrates did not charge for his tutelage • Sophists are accredited as being the first lawyers • Instrumental in shaping Athenian democracy Socrates

4. A sophisticated approach?

5. The Three Schools of Athenian Rhetoric • Socratean Rhetoric • The Practical Educational Approach • Removed manipulative rhetoric from hiseducational program • Rhetoric which serves unificationand consensus • Seeks to build relationships where both parties win • “In the hands of Isocrates rhetoric is gradually transformed into ethics” Marrou (1956) • Interested in tackling moral concepts • the virtues of piety, wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice Socrates

6. The Three Schools of Athenian Rhetoric • The Socratic method • A debate between individuals with opposingviewpoints • Based on asking and answering questionsto stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas • A method of hypothesis elimination,in that better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those that lead to contradictions Socrates

7. The Three Schools of Athenian Rhetoric • Plato’s Academy, founded in 385 B.C. • The Moral Philosophical Approach • In the service of absolute truth • Plato was an elitist, believing that rhetoriccould only serve best in the realm of philosophers, who had discovered divine,ultimate truths • The enlightened few were to use rhetoric to lead the unenlightened masses toward those truths Plato

8. The Three Schools of Athenian Rhetoric • In his work Phaedrus • Plato provides an ethical framework foracceptable rhetoric • The non-lover model: Shows no affectionfor the object of its symbolizingand therefore incapable of inducing bias • The evil-lover model: making the belovedinferior to himself. Motivated by selfishappetite and desire for exploitation. • The noble-lover model: This, of course, is the model that Plato offers as the framework for an ethical rhetoric.The noble lover strives to improve his beloved. Plato

9. The Three Schools of Athenian Rhetoric • Aristotle’s Lyceum, founded in 335 B.C. • Philosophical Scientific Approach • Devises system for applying rhetoric: • Three Means of Persuasion(logos, pathos, and ethos) • Three Genres of Rhetoric(deliberative, forensic, and epideictic) • Rhetorical topics • Parts of speech • Effective use of style Aristotle

10. The Three Schools of Athenian Rhetoric • His treatise, The Art of Rhetoric • A speaker or writer has three waysto persuade his audience: • Ethos(appeal to the speaker’s character) • Pathos(appeal to emotion) • Logos(appeal to logic) • He believed Logos was superior,ideally all arguments should be won or lost on reason alone • Errors in reasoning are easy to make • These errors are called logical fallacies Aristotle

11. The Three Schools of Athenian Rhetoric • Formal Logical Fallacies • Aristotle was a big fan of formal syllogisms • A formal fallacy in syllogisms occurswhenever the structure of the argumentitself is flawed and renders it invalid. • All men are mortal. • Socrates is mortal. • Therefore, Socrates is a man. • Just because Socrates is mortal, doesn’t necessarilymean he’s a man Aristotle

12. Political Weight and Fallacies