Contents:
I. Aristotle's Account of Rhetoric (below)
II. More's
Rhetoric of Silence: Confrontation with Cardinal Wolsey in Parliament
III. Rhetoric in More's Letters: Letter to Oxford, Letter to
Erasmus
IV.
Rhetoric
of Shakespeare and More
V.
Rhetoric
in More's Richard III
To teach an
introduction to rhetoric, begin with the following excerpt from
Aristotle's Rhetoric, then use the examples of More's rhetoric
in his letters, in Shakespeare, and in his Richard III to
demonstrate the points in the Rhetoric, using the study
questions at the end of each selection.
ARISTOTLE'S ACCOUNT OF RHETORIC: (For full text of the Rhetoric online, click here.)
Definition
Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case
the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of any other
art. Every other art can instruct or persuade about its own particular
subject-matter; for instance, medicine about what is healthy and
unhealthy, geometry about the properties of magnitudes, arithmetic
about numbers, and the same is true of the other arts and sciences. But
rhetoric we look upon as the power of observing the means of persuasion
on almost any subject presented to us;
and that is why we say that, in its technical character, it is not
concerned with any special or definite class of subjects….(1.2,
1355b26-36)
The three kinds of Persuasion: ethos, pathos, logos
Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three
kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker
[ethos]; the second in putting the audience into a certain frame of
mind (i. e. the right, fit, required frame of mind [i.e. pathos]); the
third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the
speech itself [logos]. Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal
character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him
credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others:
this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true
where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided. This kind
of persuasion, like the others, should be achieved by what the speaker
says, not by what people think of his character before he begins to
speak. It is not true, as some writers assume in their treatises on
rhetoric, that the personal goodness revealed by the speaker
contributes nothing to his power of persuasion; on the contrary, his
character [ethos] may almost be called the most effective means of
persuasion he possesses. Secondly, persuasion
may come through the hearers, when the speech stirs their emotions
[pathos].
Our judgments, when we are pleased and friendly, are not the same as
when
we are pained and hostile. It is towards producing these effects, as we
maintain,
that present-day writers on rhetoric direct the whole of their efforts.
This
subject shall be treated in detail when we come to speak of the
emotions.
Thirdly, persuasion is effected through the speech itself when we have
proved
a truth or an apparent truth by means of the persuasive arguments
suitable
to the case in question [logos].
There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who
is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason
logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their
various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions— that is, to name
them and describe them, to know their causes and the way in which they
are excited. It thus appears that rhetoric is an offshoot of dialectic
and also of ethical studies.… (1.2, 1356a1-26)
When people are feeling friendly
and placable, they think one sort of thing; when they are feeling angry
or hostile, they think either something totally different or the same
thing with a different intensity: when they feel friendly to the man
who comes before them for judgment, they regard him as having done
little wrong, if any; when they feel hostile, they take the opposite
view. Again, if they are eager for, and have good
hopes of, a thing that will
be pleasant if it happens, they think that it certainty will happen and
be good for them: whereas if they are indifferent or annoyed, they do
not think so…. The Emotions are all those feelings that so change men
as to
affect their judgments… (2.1, 1377b31-1378a21)
Types of Character as Influenced by Emotion, Age, and Fortune
Let us now consider the various types of human character, in relation
to the emotions and moral qualities, showing how they correspond to our
various ages and fortunes. By emotions I mean anger, desire, and the
like;
these we have discussed already. By moral qualities I mean virtues and
vices;
these also have been discussed already, as well as the various things
that
various types of men tend to will and to do. By ages I mean youth, the
prime
of life, and old age. By fortune I mean birth, wealth, power, and their
opposites—in fact, good fortune and ill fortune. (2.12, 1388b32-1389a2)
Emotions Dominant in Youth
To begin with the Youthful type of character. Young men have strong
passions, and tend to gratify them indiscriminately. Of the bodily
desires, it is the sexual by which they are most swayed and in which
they show absence of self-control. They are changeable and fickle in
their desires, which are violent while
they last, but quickly over: their impulses are keen but not
deep-rooted,
and are like sick people's attacks of hunger and thirst. They are
hot-tempered and quick-tempered, and apt to give way to their anger;
bad temper often
to gets the better of them, for owing to their love of honor they
cannot
bear being slighted, and are indignant if they imagine themselves
unfairly
treated. While they love honor, they love victory still more; for youth
is
eager for superiority over others, and victory is one form of this.
They
love both more than they love money, which indeed they love very
little, not
having yet learnt what it means to be without it—this is the point of
Pittacus'
remark about Amphiaraus. They look at the good side rather than the
bad,
not having yet witnessed many instances of wickedness. They trust
others
readily, because they have not yet often been cheated. They are
sanguine; nature warms their blood as though with excess of wine; and
besides that, they have as yet met with few disappointments. Their
lives are mainly spent not in memory but in expectation; for
expectation refers to the future, memory to the past, and youth has a
long future before it and a short past behind it: on the first day of
one's life one has nothing at all to remember, and can only look
forward. They are easily cheated, owing to the sanguine disposition
just mentioned. Their hot tempers and hopeful dispositions make them
more courageous than older men are; the hot temper prevents fear, and
the hopeful disposition creates confidence; we cannot feel fear so long
as we are feeling angry, and any expectation of good makes us
confident. They are shy, accepting the rules of society in which they
have been trained, and not yet believing in any other standard of
honor. They have exalted notions, because they
have not yet been humbled by life or learnt its necessary limitations;
moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal
to great things—and that means having exalted notions. They would
always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: their lives are
regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning; and whereas
reasoning leads us to choose what is useful, moral goodness leads us to
choose what is noble. They are fonder of their friends, intimates, and
companions than older men are,
because they like spending their days in the company of others, and
have not yet come to value either their friends or anything else by
their usefulness to themselves. All their mistakes are in the direction
of doing things excessively and vehemently. They disobey Chilon's
precept by overdoing everything; they have much and hate too much, and
the same with everything else. They think they know everything, and are
always quite sure about this, in fact, is why they overdo everything.
If they do wrong others, it is because they mean
to insult them, not to do them actual harm. They are ready to pity
others, because they think every one is an honest man or anyhow other
that he is: They judge their neighbor by their own harmless natures,
and so cannot think he deserves to be treated in that way. They are
fond of fun and therefore witty, wit being well-bred insolence. (2.12,
1389a3-1389b11)
Emotions Dominant in the Elderly
Such, then, is the character of the Young. The character of the
Elderly—those who are past their prime—may be said to be formed for the
most part of elements that are the contrary of all these. They have
lived many years; they have often been taken in, and often made
mistakes; and life on the whole is a bad business. The result is that
they are sure about nothing and under-do everything. They “think”, but
they never “know”; and because of their hesitation they always add a
“possibly” or a “perhaps”, putting everything this way and
nothing positively. They are cynical; that is, they tend to put the
worse construction on everything. Further, their experience makes them
distrustful and therefore suspicious of evil. Consequently they neither
love warmly nor hate bitterly, but following the hint of Bias they love
as though they will some day hate and hate as though they will some day
love. They arc small-minded, because they have been humbled by life:
their desires are set upon nothing more exalted or unusual than what
will help them to keep alive. They are not
generous, because money is one of the things they must have, and at the
same
time their experience has taught them how hard it is to get and how
easy
to lose. They are cowardly, and are always anticipating danger; unlike
that
of the young, who are warm-blooded, their temperament is chilly; old
age
has paved the way for cowardice; fear is, in fact, a form of chill.
They love
life; and all the more when their last day has come, because the object
of
all desire is something we have not got, and also because we desire
most strongly
that which we need most urgently. They are too fond of themselves; this
is
one form that small-mindedness takes. Because of this, they guide their
lives
too much by considerations of what is useful and too little by what is
noble—for
the useful is what is good for oneself, and the noble what is good
absolutely.
They are not shy, but shameless rather; caring less for what is noble
than
for what is useful, they feel contempt for what people may think of
them.
They lack confidence in the future; partly through experience—for most
things
go wrong, or anyhow turn out worse than one expects; and partly because
of
their cowardice. They live by memory rather than by hope; for what is
left
to them of life is but little as compared with the long past; and hope
is
of the future, memory of the past. This, again, is the cause of their
loquacity;
they are continually talking of the past, because they enjoy
remembering
it. Their fits of anger are sudden but feeble. Their sensual passions
have
either altogether gone or have lost their vigor: consequently they do
not
feel their passions much, and their actions are inspired less by what
they
do feel than by the love of gain. Hence men at this time of life are
often
supposed to have a self-controlled character; the fact is that their
passions
have slackened, and they are slaves to the love of gain. They guide
their
lives by reasoning more than by moral feeling; reasoning being directed
to
utility and moral feeling to moral goodness. If they wrong others, they
mean
to injure them, not to insult them. Old men may feel pity, as well as
young
men, but not for the same reason. Young men feel it out of kindness;
old
men out of weakness, imagining that anything that befalls any one else
might
easily happen to them, which, as we saw, is a thought that excites
pity.
Hence they are querulous, and not disposed to jesting or laughter—the
love
of laughter being the very opposite of querulousness.
Such are the characters of the
Young and the Elderly. People always think well of speeches adapted to,
and reflecting, their own character: and we can now see how to compose
our speeches so as to adapt both them and ourselves to our audiences.
(2.13, 1389b12-1390a27)
Emotions Dominant in the Prime of Life
As for those in their Prime, clearly we shall find that they have a
character between that of the young and that of the old, free from the
extremes of either. They have neither that excess of confidence which
amounts to rashness, nor too much timidity, but the right amount of
each. They neither trust everybody nor distrust everybody, but judge
people correctly. Their lives will be guided not by the sole
consideration either of what is noble or of what is useful, but by
both; neither by parsimony nor by prodigality, but by what is fit
and proper. So, too, in regard to anger and desire; they will be brave
as
well as temperate, and temperate as well as brave; these virtues are
divided
between the young and the old; the young are brave but intemperate, the
old
temperate but cowardly. To put it generally, all the valuable qualities
that
youth and age divide between them are united in the prime of life,
while all
their excesses or defects are replaced by moderation and fitness. The
body
is in its prime from thirty to five-and-thirty; the mind about
forty-nine. (2.14, 1390a28-1390b10)
How Fortune Affects Character
So much for the types of character that distinguish youth, old age, and
the prime of life. We will now turn to those Gifts of Fortune by which
human character is affected. (2.15, 1390b13-15)
The Well-Born
First let us consider the Well-Born. Its effect on character is to make
those who have it more ambitious; it is the way of all men who have
something to start with to add to the pile, and good birth implies
ancestral distinction. The well-born man will look down even on those
who are as good as his own ancestors, because any far-off distinction
is greater than the same thing close to us, and better to boast about….
(2.15, 1390b15-22)
The Wealthy
The type of character produced by Wealth lies on the surface for all to
see. Wealthy men are insolent and arrogant; their possession of wealth
affects their understanding; they feel as if they had every good thing
that exists; wealth becomes a sort of standard of value for everything
else, and therefore they imagine there is nothing it cannot buy. They
are luxurious and ostentatious; luxurious, because of the luxury in
which they live and the prosperity which they display; ostentatious and
vulgar, because, like other people’s, their minds are regularly
occupied with the object of their love and admiration, and also because
they think that other people's idea of happiness is the same as their
own. It is indeed quite natural that they should be affected thus; for
if you have money, there are always plenty of people who come begging
from you. Hence the saying of Simonides about wise men and rich men, in
answer to Hicro's wife, who asked him whether it was better to grow
rich or wise. “Why, rich,” he said; “for I see the wise men spending
their days at the
rich men's doors.” Rich men also consider themselves worthy to hold
public
office; for they consider they already have the things that give a
claim
to office. In a word, the type of character produced by wealth is that
of
a prosperous fool. There is indeed one difference between the type of
the
newly-enriched and those who have long been rich: is the newly-enriched
have
all the bad qualities mentioned in an exaggerated and worse form—to be
newly-enriched means, so to speak, no education in riches. The wrongs
they do others are not meant to injure their victims, but spring from
insolence or self-indulgence, e. g. those that end in assault or in
adultery. (2.16, 1390b1-1391a19)
The Powerful
As to Power: here too it may fairly be said that the type of character
it produces is mostly obvious enough. Some elements in this type it
shares with the wealthy type, others are better. Those in power are
more ambitious and more manly in character than the wealthy, because
they aspire to do the
great deeds that their power permits them to do. Responsibility makes
them
more serious: they have to keep paying attention to the duties their
position
involves. They are dignified rather than arrogant, for the respect in
which
they are held inspires them with dignity and therefore with
moderation—dignity being a mild and becoming form of arrogance. If they
wrong others, they wrong them not on a small but on a great scale….
(2.17, 1391a20-29)
Usefulness of Jests
Jests…are supposed to be of some service in controversy. Gorgias said
that you should kill your opponents' earnestness with jesting and their
jesting with earnestness; in which he was right. Jests have been
classified
in the Poetics. Some are becoming to a gentleman, others are not; see
that
you choose such as become you. Irony better befits a gentleman than
buffoonery; the ironical man jokes to amuse himself, the buffoon to
amuse other people. (3.18, 1419b2-8)
Study
Questions -- Aristotle's Rhetoric
1. How does Aristotle define rhetoric? What are
ethos, pathos, and logos?
2. Why must leaders who wish to be effective understand rhetoric?
3. What is the most important factor in persuading others? Why?
4. Why is an understanding of the emotions a necessary part of
effective rhetoric? Give two examples.
5. Why must leaders understand how age and fortune affect character?
6. Is rhetoric important in other spheres of activity, such as
friendship? How does Plutarch’s understanding of candor reflect
his awareness of the importance of good rhetoric?
7. What are the chief forms of rhetoric encountered in the contemporary
world?
8. Is all rhetoric – and are all rhetoricians – equally
well-motivated? How might one learn to recognize bad rhetoric?
