Aristotle: 'Art' of Rhetoric

Rhetoric then may be defined as the faculty of discovering the possible means of persuasion in reference to any subject whatever (I.i.2)

Plato: Phaedrus (paraphrase)

the result aimed at by rhetoric is persuasiveness, ability to lead the minds of hearers to a particular belief or action--although he constantly refers to it in the text as a 'sham' art.

Beauvais: Speculum Doctrinale (13th c.)

Rhetoric is the science of speaking well on civil questions for the purpose of persuading by a just and good copiousness in respect to the interactions of events and persons. Indeed, rhetoric was the term in Greece for copiousness of speaking. For among the Greeks speaking is called rhesis, and the orator, rhetor...

Boethius: Confessions (taken from Howell)

rhetoric treats of and discourses upon hypotheses, that is, questions with a multitude of surroundings in time and place, and if at any time it brings up a thesis, it uses it in connection with its hyposthesis. These are its surroundings: Who? What? Where? By whose help? Why? In what manner? At what time?

Rhetoric flows along on an appropriate subject without interruption.....rhetoric is content with the brevity of the enthymeme.... [an] orator attempts indded to persuade the judge, whereas the dialectician attempts to extort from his adversary what is wanted.

Wilbur Samuel Howell: Logic and Rhetoric in England, 1500-1700

[on renaissance definition of rhetoric] the theory of communication between the learned and the lay world or between the expert and layman.

James J. Murphy: "One Thousand Neglected Authors"

rhetoric is the art or science of men and women communicating with other human beings

a rhetorician is someone who provides his fellows with useful precepts or directions for organizing and presenting his ideas or feeling to them (20)

Paul Oskar Kristeller: "Rhetoric in medieval and Renaissance Culture"

rhetoric is generally defined as the art of persuasion, of the probable argument, of prose style and composition, or of literary criticism. These definitions often differ depending upon the period in which they are given. Some saw the 'art' as oral, while other periods (particularly the Medieval) emphasized writing.

Marc Fumaroli: "Rhetoric, Politics and Society"

rhetoric appears as the connective tissue peculiar to civil society and to its proper finalities, happiness and political peace hic et nunc (253-4)

Kenneth Burke: A Rhetoric of Motives

the most characteristic concern of rhetoric [is] the manipulation of men's beliefs for political ends....the basic function of rhetoric [is] the use of words by human agents to form attitudes or to induce actions in other human agents (41).

The use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols (43).

Please note that I have not included definitions for any Renaissance Rhetorics. These may follow, but this hand-out was designed to place rhetoric before we began discussing the English Renaissance.--CRE.

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