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    Rhetoric
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    Rhetoric
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    Rhetoric
    Ebook314 pages4 hours

    Rhetoric

    By Aristotle

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    About this ebook

    One of the seminal works of Western philosophy, Aristotle's Rhetoric vastly influenced all subsequent thought on the subject — philosophical, political, and literary. Focusing on the use of language as both a vehicle and a tool to shape persuasive argument, Aristotle delineates with remarkable insight both practical and aesthetic elements and their proper combination in an effective presentation, oral or written. He also emphasizes the role of language in achieving precision and clarity of thought.
    The ancients regarded rhetoric as the crowning intellectual discipline — the synthesis of logical principles and other knowledge attained from years of schooling. Modern readers will find considerable relevance in Aristotelian rhetoric and its focus on developing persuasive tools of argumentation. Aristotle's examinations of how to compose and interpret speeches offer significant insights into the language and style of contemporary communications, from advertisements to news reports and other media.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateMar 6, 2012
    ISBN9780486115580
    Author

    Aristotle

    Aristotle (384–322 BC) was a philosopher and writer from the Classical period in Ancient Greece. His work provides the intellectual methodology of most European-centred civilization, influencing the fundamental forms of all knowledge. Taught by Plato, he wrote on many subjects including physics, biology, zoology, philosophy, politics and the arts.

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    Reviews for Rhetoric

    4/5

    152 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      An excellent introduction to Classical Rhetoric from the man who codified it for the modern world.
    • 3/5
      An interesting take on rhetoric from the master logician himself. Aristotle's points are complex and multi-layered, and the text is somewhat antiquated, but this is still a landmark document in the history of non-fiction, philosophy, and rhetoric itself.

      I recommend it.
    • 1/5
      What is this guy trying to say? He seems to have confused even himself, because he's a little contradictory. Okay, okay, so technically I didn't finish this book. I just put it down.
    • 5/5
      Some of this book reads like a manual for living with what seem to be the simplest instructions imaginable. Wake up, lift the cover, put your feet on the floor, stand up, go to the bathroom, etc. Yet when one thinks about this being some of the earliest writings in recorded history, this instruction manual in how to be persuasive in speech and in writing states exactly what we teach our university students today. And therein lies the simplicity that belies its brilliance. This is my first cover-to-cover reading of Rhetoric. There are many references to Topics, Poetics, and Politics, and other works on rhetoric by other authors, but the reading of this work has inspired me to embark on a proper reading of the Great Books series, as set out by Hutchins and Adler at the University of Chicago, and I have begun at the beginning with Homer's Iliad. I recall a commentary on Darwin - George Bernard Shaw I think it was - that ran something like "once Darwin had proved, through systematic use of the evidence, that natural selection was a very real phenomenon, he did it over again with even more examples to the point of tedium". But Aristotle was the original. Simply reading this points me to the problem with all of my rejected papers - they are not systematic. I recall the guidance of my old professor: "When it is so simple it sounds too easy, then it is good". I also recall Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's "[etc]...has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away". Aristotle points to this and, much like Darwin, points to it again and again so as to remove all doubt. While reading Aristotle is much like my reading of J.S. Mill and Trotsky, as in it feels like I am reading my own knowledge in a book. Not because I am so knowledgeable, but because these authors permeated my education. Now, at least, I can see clearly where that education came from, and I am, strange as it may seem, excited about reading the Great Books I am yet to read.
    • 3/5
      This book is a review of the types and ways of speaking. It is somewhat of a difficult read in that it does not flow well. This may be the difficulty in translating something from the Greek that was used originally used by Aristotle as his class notes. There are worthwhile nuggets of insight and instruction. Maybe a modern day scholar has taken this work and improved upon it. If anyone knows of such a book please let me know.

      1 person found this helpful