Download Midterm Terms

Arrangement – The planned ordering of a message to achieve the greatest persuasive effect.
De Oratore – Response to Plato's criticisms of the art in Gorgias
- Composed as a dialogue
Dialectic – A logical method of debating issues of general interest, starting from widely accepted
propositions.
Dissoi Logoi – Contradictory arguments
Enthymeme – A rhetorical syllogism that uses an assumption to find a conclusion. (All men are
mortal.
Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.)
Loci – Location systems that began as memory aids and later assisted the invention of arguments
Logos – (Logic) Word; argument. Also, a transcendent source of truth for Plato
 An account. A clear and logical explanation of a true art or techne.
Polis – The city-state, particularly the people making up the state.
Second Sophistic – Refers to period around 50-100 AD
 Some ratorical elements from original Greek Sophists were reintroduced in parts of the
Roman Empire.
 Followed times of great crisis for the Greek sections of the Roman Empire
 Participants were known as the “new Sophists” who made speeches of display at games
and international festivals
 The Second Sophistic represents a serious demotion of rhetoric from its former
prominence as a means of shaping public policy and influencing judicial decisions.
 Rhetoric had to be restrained due to the imperial government. It became a capital crime
to insult the Emperor.
Stasis System – Method for discovering arguments by identifying points where clash or disagreement
was likely to occur in a case or debate.
Syllogism – A deductive argument that moves from a general premise, through a particular application
of that premise, to a specific conclusion. (Two facts and a conclusion. No assumption)
Techne – A practical art, a science, or a systematic study
 A true art or discipline. A scientific or systematic pursuit capable of a full account and
arriving regularly at a good product or outcome.
Topoi – Topics.
Special Topics – in use for particular settings (finances, war/peace)
Common Topics (Koinoi Topoi)– to be shared a knowledge of the speaker for any setting.
General lines of argument such as reasoning from general to particular.
Sham Arts of Health
True Arts of Health
Maintain the Body (Makeup)
Maintain the Body (Gymnastics)
Restore the Body (Cookery)
Restore the Body (Medicine)
Maintain the Soul (Sophistic)
Maintain the Soul (Legislation)
Restore the Soul (Rhetoric)
Restore the Soul (Justice)
Dialectic was a method of debating issues of general interested, starting from “widely accepted ideas,”
or endoxa.
Rhetoric
Art of: The study and practice of effective symbolic expression
Type of discourse: Goal-oriented discourse that seeks, by means of the resources of symbols, to adapt
ideas to an audience
Dialectic and Rhetoric Similarities
 Both deal with questions that concern everyone.
 Both deal with questions that do not belong to a specific science or art
 Both can reason on either side of a case
 Both start with endoxa or common opinions
Dialectic
Rhetoric
Purpose:
Testing an argument
Defending an idea or self
Practitioner:
Experts in reasoning
Ordinary citizens
Method:
Question and Answer
Speech
Issue:
General questions
Specific questions
Audience:
Small audience
Large audience
Argument:
Syllogism
Enthymeme
Proofs:
Arguments
Arguments, character, & emotion
Inventio (Invention)
Cicero's term describing the process of coming up
with the arguments and appeals that would make
up the substance of a persuasive case.
Dispositio (Arrangement)
The distribution of arguments thus discovered in
the proper order.
Elocution (Style)
The fitting of the proper language to the invented
material.
Memoria (Memory)
The firm mental grasp of matter and words.
Pronuntiatio (Delivery)
The control of voice and body in a manner
suitable to the dignity of the subject matter and the
style.