A Summary of the Major Rhetoric Concepts
A Summary of the Major Rhetoric Concepts
Kairos (Isocrates)
The fundamental concept of ‘Kairos’—fitness for the occasion, or the right moment/timing for something—is a recurring topic in Isocrates’s writings. The consistent advocation and practice of this concept may constitute his most significant contribution to rhetoric. A first- handing knowledge of Kairos’ rich and elusive meanings can be obtained by reading through Isocrates.
For what has been said by one speaker is not equally useful for the speaker who comes after him; on the contrary, he is accounted most skilled in this art who speaks in a manner worthy of his subject and yet is able to discover in it topics which are nowise the same as those used by others. But the greatest proof of the difference between these two arts is that oratory is good only if it has the qualities of fitness for occasion, propriety of style, and originality of treatment, while in the case of letters there is no such need whatsoever.
Rhetoric (Aristotle)
Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.
Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself.
Persuasion is achieved by the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: This is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is possible and opinions are divided. This kind of persuasion, like the others, should be achieved by what the speaker says, not by what people think of this character before he begins to speak. It is not true, as some writers assume in their treatises on rhetoric, that the personal goodness revealed by the
Kairos (Isocrates)
The fundamental concept of ‘Kairos’—fitness for the occasion, or the right moment/timing for something—is a recurring topic in Isocrates’s writings. The consistent advocation and practice of this concept may constitute his most significant contribution to rhetoric. A first- handing knowledge of Kairos’ rich and elusive meanings can be obtained by reading through Isocrates.
For what has been said by one speaker is not equally useful for the speaker who comes after him; on the contrary, he is accounted most skilled in this art who speaks in a manner worthy of his subject and yet is able to discover in it topics which are nowise the same as those used by others. But the greatest proof of the difference between these two arts is that oratory is good only if it has the qualities of fitness for occasion, propriety of style, and originality of treatment, while in the case of letters there is no such need whatsoever.
Rhetoric (Aristotle)
Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.
Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself.
Persuasion is achieved by the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: This is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is possible and opinions are divided. This kind of persuasion, like the others, should be achieved by what the speaker says, not by what people think of this character before he begins to speak. It is not true, as some writers assume in their treatises on rhetoric, that the personal goodness revealed by the