Rhetoric in European Culture and Beyond

Jiří Kraus

KAROLINUM

Rhetoric in European Culture and Beyond

Jiří Kraus

Reviewed by:

PhDr. Světla Čmejrková, DrSc.

Mgr. Jiří Lukeš, Th.D.

Published by Charles University in Prague

Karolinum Press

www.karolinum.cz

ebooks@karolinum.cz

English translation by Petra Key

Editor Martin Janeček

Cover by Zdeněk Ziegler

First English edition

© Charles University in Prague, 2014

Text © Jiří Kraus, 2014

Translation © Petra Key, 2014

ISBN 978-80-246-2215-6

ISBN 978-80-246-2588-1 (pdf)

ISBN 978-80-246-3042-7 (ePub)

ISBN 978-80-246-3041-0 (Kindle)

CONTENTS

1. Cover Page

2. Title Page

3. Copyright Page

4. Contents

5. Introduction

6. History of Rhetoric – A Motionless History?

7. 1. The Origin of Rhetoric in Ancient Greece

1. The Search for Techné

2. Protagoras’s Agonistic Rhetoric

3. First Teachers

4. Ancient Rhetoric as a Model of Persuasive Communication

5. Plato’s Unending Dispute with Rhetoric

6. Isocrates’s Programme of Rhetoric in Service of Political Culture

7. Aristotle as Ancient Rhetoric’s Pinnacle

8. On the Art of Persuasion in Rhetoric to Alexander

8. 2. Hellenistic and Roman Rhetoric

1. The Birth of Hellenistic Philology

2. Rhetorical Instruction in the Hellenistic Period

3. Hermagoras of Temnos and the Stasis Theory

4. Rhetoric in Ancient Rome

5. Rhetorica ad Herennium (Ad C. Herennium de ratione dicendi libri quattuor)

6. Cicero’s Perfect Orator as a Citizen, an Advocate of Law and a Politician

7. Quintillian’s Institutes of Oratory

8. Pliny the Younger and Tacitus on the Role of Rhetoric in Imperial Rome

9. The Second Sophistic and Hermogenes’s Rhetoric as a Stasis System

9. 3. Rhetoric and Medieval Christian Culture

1. Rhetoric and the Seven Liberal Arts Allegory in Martianus Capella

2. Augustine of Hippo – Preacher, Rhetorician, Polemicist

3. Topica Boethii – Rhetoric in Service of Dialectics

4. Cassiodorus’s Encyclopaedic View of the Christian World

5. Isidore of Seville and the Origin of Scholastic Education

6. Rhetoric as Part of Grammar: The Venerable Bede

7. Alcuin of York: a Teacher of Wisdom and Eloquence

8. Artes Praedicandi: The Art of Preaching in the Middle Ages

9. Artes Dictaminis: The Art of Rhetoric’s New Face

10. Artes Poetriae: Theory and Practice of Written Discourse

11. Rhetoric in Medieval Byzantium

10. 4. From Humanism to the Enlightenment

1. Rhetoric during Humanism and Renaissance

2. Lorenzo Valla, a Renaissance Philologist

3. George of Trebizond

4. Byzantine Rhetoric after the Fall of Constantinople

5. Rudolphus Agricola

6. Rhetoric in the Works of Desiderius Erasmus

7. Philipp Melanchthon’s Authority of Protestant Rhetoric

8. Petrus Ramus and Omer Talon. The Tradition of Philippo-Ramian Rhetoric Books

9. Francesco Patrizi’s Perfetta Rhetorica

11. 5. Baroque Rhetoric in Service of the Church

1. Soarez’s Jesuit Rhetoric

2. Caussin’s Figures, Symbols and Emblems

3. Jesuit Rhetoric in Bohemia and Poland. Bohuslav Balbín

4. Protestant Rhetoric and Preaching Textbooks

5. Bartholomaeus Keckermann and the Gdańsk Rhetoric

6. Vossius’s Rhetoric of Rhetorical Affects

7. Comenius’s Brethren’s Rhetoric

8. Religious, Political and Cultural Prerequisites for the Rhetorical Boom in Russia and Ukraine

12. 6. Scholarly Community Replaced by the Republic of Letters. Philosophy versus Rhetoric at the Threshhold of a New Era

1. Bacon’s Polemical Dialogue with Rhetoric

2. Hobbes’s Rhetoric as a Political Weapon

3. Bernard Lamy’s Cartesian Inspirations

13. 7. Taste Norms and Criteria in 18th-Century Rhetoric

1. Fénelon’s Rhetoric as an Art of Portraiture

2. Du Marsais and His Project of Philosophical Rhetoric

3. Vico’s Institutiones oratoriae and Project of a “New Science”

4. Rhetoric, Teaching Refined Taste (Bouhours, Rollin, Dubos)

5. Adam Smith and Scottish Rhetoric

6. Rhetoric in Spain and Gregorio Mayans y Siscar

7. Philological Orientation of Rhetoric in Germany – Johann Christoph Gottsched

8. Lomonosov and the Development of Classicism in Russia

14. 8. Rhetoric in the 19th Century

1. Friedrich Nietzsche and the Philosophy of Rhetoric

2. 19th-Century Rhetoric in France. Fontanier’s Semantic Theory of Tropes and Figures

3. 19th-Century Rhetoric in England. Whately, Bain, Spencer

4. Jungmann’s Slovesnost as Rhetoric for Readers’ Edification and Taste

15. 9. Rhetoric in the 20th Century

1. Rhetoric – Inspiration for Language, Literary and Philosophical Discourses

2. Rhetoric in the United States against Barriers in Communication

3. Rhetoric since the Mid-20th Century in Germany and Austria

4. Theory of Argumentation in the Work of Chaim Perelman and Stephen Toulmin

5. Rhetoric in the Second Half of the 20th Century in Romance Countries

16. 10. Other Rhetorical Theories and Other Cultures

17. Epilogue

18. Notes

19. Selected Bibliography

20. Name Index

INTRODUCTION

History of Rhetoric – A Motionless History?

1. THE ORIGIN OF RHETORIC IN ANCIENT GREECE

The Search for Techné

Protagoras’s Agonistic Rhetoric

First Teachers

Ancient Rhetoric as a Model of Persuasive Communication

Plato’s Unending Dispute with Rhetoric

Isocrates’s Programme of Rhetoric in Service of Political Culture

Aristotle as Ancient Rhetoric’s Pinnacle

On the Art of Persuasion in Rhetoric to Alexander

2. HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN RHETORIC

The Birth of Hellenistic Philology

Rhetorical Instruction in the Hellenistic Period

Hermagoras of Temnos and the Stasis Theory

Rhetoric in Ancient Rome

Rhetorica ad Herennium (Ad C. Herennium de ratione dicendi libri quattuor)

Cicero’s Perfect Orator as a Citizen, an Advocate of Law and a Politician

Quintillian’s Institutes of Oratory

Pliny the Younger and Tacitus on the Role of Rhetoric in Imperial Rome

The Second Sophistic and Hermogenes’s Rhetoric as a Stasis System

3. RHETORIC AND MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN CULTURE

Rhetoric and the Seven Liberal Arts Allegory in Martianus Capella

Augustine of Hippo – Preacher, Rhetorician, Polemicist

Topica Boethii – Rhetoric in Service of Dialectics

Cassiodorus’s Encyclopaedic View of the Christian World

Isidore of Seville and the Origin of Scholastic Education

Rhetoric as Part of Grammar: The Venerable Bede

Alcuin of York: a Teacher of Wisdom and Eloquence

Artes Praedicandi: The Art of Preaching in the Middle Ages

Artes Dictaminis: The Art of Rhetoric’s New Face

Artes Poetriae: Theory and Practice of Written Discourse

Rhetoric in Medieval Byzantium

4. FROM HUMANISM TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT

Rhetoric during Humanism and Renaissance

Lorenzo Valla, a Renaissance Philologist

George of Trebizond

Byzantine Rhetoric after the Fall of Constantinople

Rudolphus Agricola

Rhetoric in the Works of Desiderius Erasmus

Philipp Melanchthon’s Authority of Protestant Rhetoric

Petrus Ramus and Omer Talon. The Tradition of Philippo-Ramian Rhetoric Books

Francesco Patrizi’s Perfetta Rhetorica

5. BAROQUE RHETORIC IN SERVICE OF THE CHURCH

Soarez’s Jesuit Rhetoric

Caussin’s Figures, Symbols and Emblems

Jesuit Rhetoric in Bohemia and Poland. Bohuslav Balbín

Protestant Rhetoric and Preaching Textbooks

Bartholomaeus Keckermann and the Gdańsk Rhetoric

Vossius’s Rhetoric of Rhetorical Affects

Comenius’s Brethren’s Rhetoric

Religious, Political and Cultural Prerequisites for the Rhetorical Boom in Russia and Ukraine

6. SCHOLARLY COMMUNITY REPLACED BY THE REPUBLIC OF LETTERS. PHILOSOPHY VERSUS RHETORIC AT THE THRESHHOLD OF A NEW ERA

Bacon’s Polemical Dialogue with Rhetoric

Hobbes’s Rhetoric as a Political Weapon

Bernard Lamy’s Cartesian Inspirations

7. TASTE NORMS AND CRITERIA IN 18TH-CENTURY RHETORIC

Fénelon’s Rhetoric as an Art of Portraiture

Du Marsais and His Project of Philosophical Rhetoric

Vico’s Institutiones oratoriae and Project of a “New Science”

Rhetoric, Teaching Refined Taste (Bouhours, Rollin, Dubos)

Adam Smith and Scottish Rhetoric

Rhetoric in Spain and Gregorio Mayans y Siscar

Philological Orientation of Rhetoric in Germany – Johann Christoph Gottsched

Lomonosov and the Development of Classicism in Russia

8. RHETORIC IN THE 19TH CENTURY

Friedrich Nietzsche and the Philosophy of Rhetoric

19th-Century Rhetoric in France. Fontanier’s Semantic Theory of Tropes and Figures

19th-Century Rhetoric in England. Whately, Bain, Spencer

Jungmann’s Slovesnost as Rhetoric for Readers’ Edification and Taste

9. RHETORIC IN THE 20TH CENTURY

Rhetoric – Inspiration for Language, Literary and Philosophical Discourses

Rhetoric in the United States against Barriers in Communication

Rhetoric since the Mid-20th Century in Germany and Austria

Theory of Argumentation in the Work of Chaim Perelman and Stephen Toulmin

Rhetoric in the Second Half of the 20th Century in Romance Countries

10. OTHER RHETORICAL THEORIES AND OTHER CULTURES

EPILOGUE

NOTES

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

NAME INDEX

1. 1

2. 2

3. 5

4. 6

5. 7

6. 8

7. 9

8. 10

9. 11

10. 12

11. 13

12. 14

13. 15

14. 16

15. 17

16. 18

17. 19

18. 20

19. 21

20. 22

21. 23

22. 24

23. 25

24. 26

25. 27

26. 28

27. 29

28. 30

29. 31

30. 32

31. 33

32. 34

33. 35

34. 36

35. 37

36. 38

37. 39

38. 40

39. 41

40. 42

41. 43

42. 44

43. 45

44. 46

45. 47

46. 48

47. 49

48. 50

49. 51

50. 52

51. 53

52. 54

53. 55

54. 56

55. 57

56. 58

57. 59

58. 60

59. 61

60. 62

61. 63

62. 64

63. 65

64. 66

65. 67

66. 68

67. 69

68. 70

69. 71

70. 72

71. 73

72. 74

73. 75

74. 76

75. 77

76. 78

77. 79

78. 80

79. 81

80. 82

81. 83

82. 84

83. 85

84. 86

85. 87

86. 88

87. 89

88. 90

89. 91

90. 92

91. 93

92. 94

93. 95

94. 96

95. 97

96. 98

97. 99

98. 100

99. 101

100. 102

101. 103

102. 104

103. 105

104. 106

105. 107

106. 108

107. 109

108. 110

109. 111

110. 112

111. 113

112. 114

113. 115

114. 116

115. 117

116. 118

117. 119

118. 120

119. 121

120. 122

121. 123

122. 124

123. 125

124. 126

125. 127

126. 128

127. 129

128. 130

129. 131

130. 132

131. 133

132. 134

133. 135

134. 136

135. 137

136. 138

137. 139

138. 140

139. 141

140. 142

141. 143

142. 144

143. 145

144. 146

145. 147

146. 148

147. 149

148. 150

149. 151

150. 152

151. 153

152. 154

153. 155

154. 156

155. 157

156. 158

157. 159

158. 160

159. 161

160. 162

161. 163

162. 164

163. 165

164. 166

165. 167

166. 168

167. 169

168. 170

169. 171

170. 172

171. 173

172. 174

173. 175

174. 176

175. 177

176. 178

177. 179

178. 180

179. 181

180. 182

181. 183

182. 184

183. 185

184. 186

185. 187

186. 188

187. 189

188. 190

189. 191

190. 192

191. 193

192. 194

193. 195

194. 196

195. 197

196. 198

197. 199

198. 200

199. 201

200. 202

201. 203

202. 204

203. 205

204. 206

205. 207

206. 208

207. 209

208. 210

209. 211

210. 212

211. 213

212. 214

213. 215

214. 216

215. 217

216. 218

217. 219

218. 220

219. 221

220. 222

221. 223

222. 224

223. 225

224. 226

225. 227

226. 228

227. 229

228. 230

229. 231

230. 232

231. 233

232. 234

233. 235

234. 236

235. 237

236. 238

237. 239

238. 240

239. 241

240. 242

241. 243

242. 244

243. 245

244. 246

245. 247

246. 248

247. 249

248. 250

249. 251

250. 252

251. 253

252. 254

253. 255

254. 256

255. 257

256. 258

257. 259

258. 260

259. 261

260. 262

261. 263

262. 264

263. 265

264. 266

265. 267

266. 268

267. 269

268. 270

269. 271

1. Cover Page

2. Begin Reading

3. Copyright Page

4. Contents

5. Introduction

6. Epilogue

7. Notes

8. Selected Bibliography

9. Name Index

INTRODUCTION

HISTORY OF RHETORIC – A MOTIONLESS HISTORY?

The content of rhetorical formulas, the normal method of their arrangement and the terminology used have not changed substantially for over two and a half thousand years. The path man has taken from the theme of speech to its acoustic and written representation has also remained unchanged. In September 1416, after an intensive search which enlivened their participation in the Council of Constance, Humanists Poggio Bracciolini, Cincio Romano and Bartolomeo Montepulciano discovered the manuscript of the complete version of Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria (Institutes of Oratory) in the Abbey of St. Gall’s dark cellar. This manuscript, which was more than thirteen-hundred years old, became for them and their contemporaries not only a source of knowledge about the admired past, but also a highly prestigious source on the norms of contemporary literary language. A similar situation also occurred one hundred years later when Bishop Gerardo Landriani found Cicero’s dialogue De oratore (On the Orator) among ancient manuscripts in the north-Italian city of Lodi, a text which had until then been known only in an incomplete and distorted version. The discovery was immediately followed by a wave of Ciceronianism, which resulted in numerous commentaries on Cicero as well as in the production of Cicero-inspired handbooks cultivating the language and style of the cultural elite of the time. Umberto Eco, a representative of modern semiotics, attributes an even longer span of norm-setting influence to Aristotle’s Poetics and Rhetoric. Eco cites many theoretical and artistic works along with movements in modern linguistics and literary criticism which are “Aristotelian in their spirit, aims, results, and ambiguities.”[1] The listed sources include Poe’s Philosophy of Composition, Warren and Wellek’s Theory of Literature, Russian Formalism, the Prague School, New Criticism, the Chicago School and motifs in Joyce’s artistic work.

Rhetoric’s defiance of change throughout history is not only due to the unexpected appearance of canonical works of Greek and Roman antiquity, representing radically different historical and cultural contexts, however, what is even more striking is the unchanged format of rhetoric textbooks, which have solidified over centuries. They lack original ideas, repeating the same phrases, examples, anecdotes. In his La Rhétorique, ou les Règles de l’eloquence (1730), Balthasar Gilbert, a teacher of rhetoric in Mazarin College at the University of Paris, proudly announces that he is not presenting unproven rules, but that instead he follows the steps of classical authors, such as Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian (Nous ne promettons donc pas ici des Règles que personne n’ait encore donné: au contraire, nous faisons gloire de ne suivre, en cette matière, que les traces des Anciens).

The difference between rhetoric textbooks thus generally lies in accentuating different elements of exposition. The sum of these differences, in fact, demonstrates an apparent shift through history. Rhetoric as a practical set of instructions for effective communication is interspersed with the reflections of contemporary philosophers and thinkers focusing on linguistic and literary style, the logic of the line of reasoning, the psychology of persuasion, and the education of future intellectuals, politicians, advocates and officials. Rhetoric teaches us how to compose texts as well as how to understand both contemporary and historical literature, how to understand the norms which determine the process of language stylization. Over the course of its long history, rhetoric has ceased to be merely a language about a language (a metalanguage) of exclusively public speeches delivered in political gatherings or before the court, and has changed into a metalanguage of stages in the development of culture and civilization. It has thus become the key to interpreting texts, works of art, communication activities and to understanding the principles of communication in general.

The very role of the cultural metalanguage, however, is itself subject to change. The strategies essential to rhetoric’s art of “composing an effective and appropriate speech or a written work” were applied wherever style as a set method of choosing and organizing means of expression using a particular repertoire (words, colours, shapes, tones) was essential. Some strategies and rules came to existence in the democracies of antiquity and in imperial Rome, others in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, baroque, classical eras and yet others have been brought about in the present time. Giorgio Vasari, an Italian mannerist and arts historian, added that this set of rules also contains licences, intentional exceptions from the rules and deformations.

The process of accepting or rejecting rhetoric textbooks displays considerably greater developmental dynamics than their form and organization. Philosophy, science, school and, last but not least, the legal systems which have since the 17th century in most European countries gradually replaced direct confrontation between the plaintiff and the defendant with an elaborate system of evidence procedure, have changed their rational and evaluation attitudes towards rhetoric. The identification of 14th–16th-century humanist principles with rhetoric is simultaneously being replaced by rationalist efforts to free the thinking subject from the hindrances laid in the path of the processes of cognition and communication by the metaphorical languages of rhetoric and rhetorical argumentation open to various conceits. It is these hindrances that Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam, had in mind when he warned against the idols of the marketplace arising from the “intercourse and association of men with each other.” In his introductory narrative to the Discourse on the Method, René Descartes denies that rhetoric should have any role in the education of a young man or in the process of arriving at the truth:

“I placed a great value on eloquence, and I was in love with poetry, but I thought that both of them were gifts given to the mind rather than fruits of study. Those who have the most powerful reasoning and who direct their thoughts best in order to make them clear and intelligible can always convince us best of what they are proposing, even if they speak only the language of Lower Brittany [language of uneducated people, JK] and have never learned rhetoric. And those who possess the most pleasant creative talents and who know how to express them with the most adornment and smoothness cannot help being the best poets, even though the art of poetry is unknown to them.”[2] Descartes’ statement is an anticipation of the revolt represented by romanticism in art one hundred years later, a revolt directed against the binding norms of discourse which can be memorized, against the norms which tie down the originality and unique character of an individual and his style.

The relationship between rhetoric and philosophy in particular was subject not only to numerous antagonisms throughout the course of history, but it also experienced transformations in how it was regarded by society. Henri-Irénée Marrou, a French historian focusing on European education, characterized its beginnings in this way: “The study of rhetoric dominant in all western cultures until that time had begun as the core of ancient Greek education and culture. In ancient Greece, the study of ‘philosophy’, represented by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, for all its subsequent fecundity, was a relatively minor element in the total Greek culture, never competitive with rhetoric either in the number of its practitioners or in its immediate social effects.”[3]

We can find several reasons why, from the first half of the 17th century, rationalism and enlightenment led, intentionally or subconsciously, first to limiting the influence of rhetoric and later to its almost total demise:

(a) The character of expert and scientific, legal and political speeches changed. Knowledge and conviction were no longer born in arguments, nor were they based in the confrontation of alternative opinions and the ability to convince the counterpart, but instead it was formed as a result of a train of thought, which was based on rational judgement or the analysis of proven empirical facts. The imagery arising from the application of rhetorical rules and the dependence on canonical models gave way to the clarity and sobriety of style. This resulted in the emergence of new stylistic models. Science was characterized by an increasing optimistic belief in the unlimited nature of human cognition.

(b) Rhetoric’s decline can also be attributed to book printing and a general growth in literacy. As the market for books, encyclopaedias and specialized journals grew and as the role of human memory and spoken language in official contact declined, rhetoric began to drown in a sea of printer’s ink.

(c) Originality became newly valued, and came to replace the imitatio method, imitating recognized models. Romanticism created a demand for stylistic innovation in fiction based on the innovative rendering of individual experiences. Science, on the other hand, was marked by efforts to form one’s own perception of the world based on empirically collected material or on one’s own logical assessment. At the beginning of the 16th century in his Il Principe (The Prince), the Renaissance politician Niccolo Machiavelli intentionally digressed from the established rhetorical model of the moralizing “mirrors for rulers” (speculum regis) and, with mathematical precision elaborated a strategy for political struggle consistently aiming to achieve a set goal: a per fas et nefas victory, a victory by any and every means.

(d) The unity of the international community of learned men fell apart. The role of Latin was replaced by national languages, which gradually developed their own refined and literary forms. An international version of Latin was no longer the ideal of the time, which was instead represented by the distinctiveness of many languages and many cultures. It was also through legislation that national languages gradually took up their place in official public communications. Any attempt to refute this development by constructing artificial languages for international communication failed. The return to a single language of international communication did not occur until the second half of the 20th century, when this role was assumed by English.

(e) The birth of historical and comparative linguistics shifted researchers’ interest towards the study of the inner laws of language development, primarily in phonetics and grammar. The rise of Indo-European studies and historical-comparative linguistics as a new philological discipline striving to discover the oldest documented or reconstructed stages of the linguistic system caused a revolution in learning about language and its laws. The regard for the functionally differentiated linguistic discourse as the main object of rhetoric began to disappear and an attempt to create an exact description of the language took the place of older, normative approaches. As rhetoric was fundamentally more limited to a set of practical advice and instructions, it ceased to be considered an equal component of philological research and gradually lost its scientific ambitions.

It was philosophers in particular who reacted to this development. John Locke called rhetoric a “powerful instrument of error and deceit,” while Kant criticized it for manipulation and rejected it as a tool for critical communication, which was the mission of an independent thinker. Leibnitz and his followers set out the idea of an artificial language, freed from the temptations of rhetorical imagery, polysemy and manipulation.

The above causes, which originated during the Enlightenment, have, however, begun to lose their power since the second half of the 20th century and, a movement accelerating at the threshold of the third millennium even to the extent that each has been transforming into its very opposite. In this context, the world marked by postmodern discourse has been witnessing the return of rhetoric. There are several reasons:

(a) Specialized discourse has become “rhetorized”: it has been losing its impartiality and objectivity, and reflects an effort to understand the openness and plurality of the world, to express a personal attitude and a personal responsibility for the problem being addressed. Science has been increasingly lending more legitimacy to questions with alternative solutions which are intelligible only within their respective contexts or paradigms. The conviction that scientific knowledge’s objectivity is an illusion has been gaining strength. It is remarkable that this view is also held by representatives of natural and physical sciences, not merely by those in social sciences. The role of axiological statements, paradoxes, chance, probability, alternatives and respect for different world views has been growing. There is a new phenomenon: an individual, subjective scientific style which intends not only to describe and analyze, but also to persuade on issues which lack a definitive solution. This style is also often conditioned by the nature of the language, national traditions and culture. In a direct continuation of the paradigms of ancient rhetoric, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is the person who formed the modern roots of this pluralist perception of reality.

(b) Thanks to television and numerous new information technologies, public communication at the end of the century rediscovered the role of oral discourse. The primary form of public communication by scientists, politicians, and representatives of the economic and financial spheres is usually spoken; after all, the speed and readiness of the computer and communications technologies have, to a large extent, erased the traditional differences between the written and spoken language. As was the case of the audience at Athen’s Agora or the Roman Forum, modern TV viewers can also register every gesture, every tone of voice employed by the people who speak to them, wanting to persuade them, win their support, make the viewers remember them.

(c) Intertextuality has become an important value: both authors and interpreters of artistic or political texts use quotes, paraphrases, intentional and unconscious allusions to other texts. Communication is thus enriched by another type of context awareness: interdiscursivity, in other words, associating texts with established genre or stylistic models, simultaneously in imitation and disruption of traditional means of expression. Imitatio, an ancient rhetorical principle, has thus been revived and has become both a communication device and strategy.

(d) Media, particularly television channels, have created a new type of supranational auditorium bringing events, whose consequences may affect the viewers at any moment, closer. As was the case of ancient Latin or Greek, within this community there are also tendencies strengthening the role of languages utilized in international communication; the status of English has been growing stronger in reflection of the world’s increasing globalization.

(e) The renaissance of rhetoric has also been supported by the turn towards communication in contemporary linguistics. Language is now more often being studied in pragmatic, social, logical, psychological and philosophical contexts. It was the importance of context that was anticipated by rhetoric’s accentuation of mastering the mutually permeating disciplines of the trivium.

It is therefore not surprising that the expression “rhetoric,” with its many and often contradictory meanings, has lately been spreading quickly through the languages of science, mass media, and everyday speech. There is a growing and legitimate concern that every person understands and judges this discipline differently. We can hear voices calling for modern rhetoric, in terms of language, ideas and ethics, to be elevated to a more sophisticated form in public speeches and communication in general, but also those that reject rhetoric as a synonym for ballast, bamboozling, insincerity or intentionally false argumentation.

This discrepancy in the perception of rhetoric is partially due to its status in the history of European education. The ability to communicate efficiently was always perceived as an indispensable part of a person’s and citizen’s education, as the necessary first stage of mastering practical and theoretical knowledge, as part of an active as well as contemplative life. However, rhetoric as a school discipline often succumbed to routine and pedantry. These increased particularly in periods in which freedom of speech as an inseparable attribute of democracy and a precondition of a statesman’s activity and a citizen’s involvement had to give way to the rigid ceremoniousness of speeches strengthening the idea of the unchangeability of the social order.

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Table of Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Introduction

History of Rhetoric – A Motionless History?

1. The Origin of Rhetoric in Ancient Greece

2. Hellenistic and Roman Rhetoric

3. Rhetoric and Medieval Christian Culture

4. From Humanism to the Enlightenment

5. Baroque Rhetoric in Service of the Church

6. Scholarly Community Replaced by the Republic of Letters. Philosophy versus Rhetoric at the Threshhold of a New Era

7. Taste Norms and Criteria in 18th-Century Rhetoric

8. Rhetoric in the 19th Century

9. Rhetoric in the 20th Century