{"id":33890,"date":"2023-05-18T02:13:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T02:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=33890"},"modified":"2023-07-02T07:45:32","modified_gmt":"2023-07-02T07:45:32","slug":"rhetoric-doesnt-need-to-be-such-an-ugly-word-it-has-a-lot-to-teach-echo-chambered-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/rhetoric-doesnt-need-to-be-such-an-ugly-word-it-has-a-lot-to-teach-echo-chambered-america\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Rhetoric\u2019 doesn\u2019t need to be such an ugly word \u2013 it has a lot to teach echo-chambered America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ryan Leack<\/a>, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early on in my writing courses<\/a>, I ask students to define their sense of rhetoric. Responses range from \u201cpersuasion\u201d to \u201cmanipulation,\u201d but they tend to share a negative connotation. Little wonder: In America today, the word is often used to dismiss a political opponent. Whereas a Democrat may find a favorite candidate\u2019s speech inspiring, a Republican might call it \u201cmere rhetoric,\u201d implying a lack of substance or even honesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what is rhetoric, really? More importantly, what does rhetoric do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, rhetoric is often associated with one-sided arguments that cater to a particular corner of an echo chamber. Writing something off as \u201crhetoric\u201d is often a power play, more about putting down an opponent than really seeking truth. Yet the earliest sense of the word, from the first rhetoricians 2,500 years ago, may help us listen to, learn from and even see validity in other perspectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The famous triad<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Do some digging on rhetoric and you\u2019ll run into Aristotle, who literally wrote the book on rhetoric<\/a>. The Greek philosopher defined it as an ability to discern what would be persuasive to a particular audience<\/a> and move them toward some desired opinion or action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, if my students know anything about rhetoric\u2019s roots, it\u2019s Aristotle\u2019s three rhetorical appeals<\/a>. Aristotle said that rhetoric could appeal to an audience in three main ways: through emotion, called pathos; through moral arguments or character, called ethos; and through logic or reason, called logos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Aristotle didn\u2019t invent rhetoric himself. His teacher Plato<\/a> probably coined the Greek term, which meant the \u201cart of speaking,\u201d and used it to describe the practices of an even older group of thinkers and orators: the Sophists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wandering teachers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Sophists roamed Greek city-states some 70 years before Aristotle, teaching effective communication skills and sometimes antagonizing people along the way. Protagoras, the first Sophist<\/a>, was also the first person on record to have his writing burned by a public authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the Sophists\u2019 teachings\u2019 varied, they were alike in important ways, such as challenging the notion that timeless truth exists. What people can determine, they argued, is what is relatively better or worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Portrait of a Sophist teacher from the ancient Greek city of Smyrna, which is now the Turkish city of Izmir. Carole Raddato\/Izmir Museum of History and Art\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Both Plato and Aristotle condemned the Sophists, whom they viewed as a threat to objective truth<\/a> and thus to philosophy itself. Platonists believed they could determine what was objectively right and wrong, good and evil, true and false.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centuries later, modern scholars have reassessed the Sophists and pieced together fragments of their work<\/a>. The Sophists\u2019 rhetorical practices acknowledge the diversity of cultural, moral and political values but avoid \u201canything goes\u201d relativism. I\u2019d argue that these qualities make their ideas particularly relevant for U.S. society today, which is divvied up into ideological echo chambers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Man is the measure\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Protagoras is most remembered by one line: \u201cMan is the measure of all things.\u201d In other words, he claims that human beings are the judges of values<\/a> and ideas, of what is to be believed and not to be believed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in my view, the \u201cman-measure doctrine<\/a>\u201d does more than say \u201cIt\u2019s all relative.\u201d It can prompt people to reflect on what standards, or criteria, we should use to make decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sophists\u2019 interest in rhetoric \u2013 effective communication \u2013 was not abstract. They were teachers and \u201corators<\/a>,\u201d arguing cases in Greek city-states\u2019 courts and governments. They were concerned with practical action. Just as one uses a measuring stick as a criterion of length or width, Sophists used one\u2019s sense of value to determine what constitutes a better or worse action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protagoras emphasized, however, that not all measures are equal; some are superior to others in any given situation. In a country where democracy is valued, for instance, certain policies objectively strengthen or weaken democratic action. But those same policies may not work well in differently organized countries. There is no one-size-fits-all measure: Values must be repeatedly defined, debated and implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the modern context, this doctrine may help avoid the \u201canything goes\u201d dangers of relativism, but also the \u201cmy way or the highway\u201d danger of moral certitude. The question for Protagoras is not necessarily \u201cWhat is true?\u201d but \u201cWhat is best for the moment?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doing 180s<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not enough to choose a measure and defend it, though. To have a real conversation, people must discuss, compare and test competing values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, too, the Sophists may be of help. The \u201cDissoi Logoi\u201d is an anonymous work related to Protagoras\u2019 methods, written around 400 B.C.E.<\/a>, whose title means \u201ccontrasting arguments.\u201d This is an exercise in which a rhetoric teacher would ask students to outline one of their firmest convictions, then ask them to defend the opposing view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This practice tests students to argue a view from all sides \u2013 challenging different ideas to arrive at the strongest conclusion. Using dissoi logoi in any setting is valuable for understanding someone else\u2019s positions and commitments, whether one is persuaded or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
A relief from a sarcophagus portraying a rhetoric teacher with pupils. Dea\/A. Dagli Orti\/De Agostini via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s \u2018probably\u2019 true<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Whereas philosophers of Plato\u2019s time were searching for absolute truth, the Sophists often taught pupils to act on what is probably the case. Enter \u201ceikos,\u201d or probable reasoning<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sophist Gorgias, for example, argues from probability in a famous case called the Defense of Palamedes<\/a>, a mythological figure. According to a common legend, Palamedes had been killed for treason. Gorgias was the first writer to challenge this assumption, illustrating that Palamedes\u2019 guilt was improbable because of a lack of motive and an unlikely chain of events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, almost 2,500 years later, probable reasoning is more significant than ever because of the sheer amount of rapid, often contradictory information that floods the world each day \u2013 not to mention methods for manipulating photos, videos, voices and the like<\/a>. What seems reasonable or true today may be cast into doubt tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, our world is chock-full of mutually exclusive beliefs, from religion to politics. It may not be useful to argue about what is absolutely \u201ctrue,\u201d but the Sophists help shift our focus to evidence about what \u201cprobably\u201d is or is not the case<\/a>, enabling us to act amid complexity and confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is one certain fact: There is a diverse but perplexing variety of views on any given issue. Absolute truth may exceed our grasp, but a measure of humility and caution may make it possible to responsibly navigate uncertainty, and the ancient Sophists\u2019 techniques provide ways to do so \u2013 but only if people discuss their differences in good faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan Leack<\/a>, Lecturer of Writing & Rhetoric, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryan Leack, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Early on in my writing courses, I ask students to define their sense of rhetoric. Responses range from \u201cpersuasion\u201d to \u201cmanipulation,\u201d but they tend to share a negative connotation. Little wonder: In America today, the word is often used to dismiss a political opponent. Whereas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":33891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[3350,5817,3647,13959,6348,13637,3185,581,697,14058],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33890"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34265,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33890\/revisions\/34265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}