Reflection # 2 - Aristotle's Way of Thinking...

Today we had the opportunity to listen to guest speaker, Kevin O'Neill, discuss Classical Rhethoric Theory. We had an interesting lesson about the Greek cultural and how the use of rhetoric focuses on context. Three important facts we learned about the Greeks were: Labor, Cultural of Work, and the Realm of Speech and action (Pathos/Logos)- turning the human body into an act of self-expression.

The Greeks were physical people who cared very much about how they looked and how they spoke. They were also an agonistic culture (extremely competitive). The Greeks created the Polis - urban environment surrounded by farmland. But no one could argue that God created the kingdoms. Plato argued that the Greeks' creation of Polis was only through speech.

Speech was a very important way of life for the Greeks. Aristotle determined there were three main ways of speaking: Deliberative - speaking of the future, Forensic - speaking of the past, and Epideitic - eulogizing a person through either praise or blame. Aristotle's thoughts on rhetoric were for speech to operate on logic.

The Sophists were instrumental in teaching the public (for money) how to use expression, dress, and tone of voice in being persuasive.

The Greeks used different argumentative avenues to their advantage. Epagoge (induction) and Dialectical (batting back and forth). The Dialectical would focus on syllogism - an assembly of a set of sentences that generate a final sentence from the first two. The sentence must declare that it is either true or false, must contain a subject and predicate, and the premise has to end in a conclusion.(ie. All men are mortal. Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal).

In communicating through speech, Aristotle believed in the importance of ethos - character of the individual - that he must have goodwill (Eunola,) and must seem virtuous. He also understood the psychology of people and that human desire must be understood before speaking to one's audience as well as knowing that happiness entices people to flourish.

In the end, Artistotle insisted that to be an effective speaker, one must know the tools to use in order to speak effectively in an agonistic society.