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Handout: Definitions of Rhetoric

What is Rhetoric?

Rhetoric can be generally defined as the art of using discourse to persuade people to (1) adopt or reject some belief, attitude, and commitment; (2) assign a particular meaning and/or value to their own and other’s conduct; and (3) to carry out some proposed course of action in response to a pressing public problem.

The clearest examples of rhetoric is persuasive public speaking in political assemblies and the courts of law. However, as we shall see rhetoric is present in many other public forums such as ceremonies, rituals, campaigns, advertising, etc.

It is important to remember that this is only a broad and vague working definition. The ways that rhetoric are defined and understood is itself a point of contention. The history of rhetorical theory is in many ways a chronicle of the disputes arising when trying to define the nature and scope of rhetoric.

One useful way to conceptualize these changes is to look to see how the central terms of the above definition have been defined throughout history:

Art: Is Rhetoric an Art or is it a series of techniques? If rhetoric is an art can it be taught? Can we identify any aesthetic principles that are always present (or present by their absence) in rhetorical practices? Does rhetoric produce knowledge?

Discourse: Is rhetoric only about speech? If not, then how does it differ in other media such as writing, photography, television, films, etc.? Is language itself rhetorical or it only rhetorical when manifested in its intended uses?

Persuade: What does it mean to persuade? Is there a difference between demonstration, conviction, and persuasion? Does persuasion entail some sort of force?

Public: What is the criteria for deciding if an issue is public or private? Does rhetoric only occur in recognized political institutions or does it also transpire in the family, romantic relationships, etc.?

Two features do seem to be present in any account of rhetorical practice:

(1) Rhetoric concerns itself with human finitude, moral and political contingencies, and opinion rather than logical, scientific, and religious Truth. That is, we turn to rhetoric when an issue or problem can not be settled once and for all by appealing to some higher being or logical scheme. Rhetoric addresses ongoing social problems that demand immediate and temporary solutions.

(2) Rhetoric is always addressed to a particular audience. Rhetoric is directed towards transforming the attitudes, beliefs, values, and actions of a particular group of people who live in a particular time and place. hence, rhetoric is always concerned with the social mores of a particular community. If a rhetorical event is “timeless” it is because it speaks to some belief or values that is present across many different communities (although present in very different ways). If rhetorical practice is concerned with transforming (even in the case where the “transformation’ is in actuality an attempt to maintain a community’s vales and actions in the face of impeding change), then it is always concerned with questions of effectiveness. That is, rhetoric always carries with it the question of what is the most effective way to persuade a particular audience.

Some Scholarly Definitions of Rhetoric

Plato:  Rhetoric is "the art of winning the soul by discourse."

Aristotle: Rhetoric is "the faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion."

Quintillian:  "Rhetoric is the art of speaking well."

Francis Bacon: The duty and office of rhetoric is to apply reason to imagination for the better moving of the will.

George Campbell:  [Rhetoric] is that art or talent by which discourse is adapted to its end.  The four ends of discourse are to enlighten the understanding, please the imagination, move the passion, and influence the will.

I.A. Richards:  Rhetoric is the study of misunderstandings and their remedies.

Richard Weaver:  Rhetoric is that "which creates an informed appetition for the good."

Erika Lindemann:  "Rhetoric is a form of reasoning about probabilities, based on assumptions people share as members of a community."

Kenneth Burke: The most characteristic concern of rhetoric [is] the manipulation of men's beliefs for political ends....the basic function of rhetoric [is] the use of words by human agents to form attitudes or to induce actions in other human agents.

George Kennedy: Rhetoric in the most general sense may perhaps be identified with the energy inherent in communication:  the emotional energy that impels the speaker to speak, the physical energy expanded in the utterance, the energy level coded in the message, and the energy experienced by the recipient in decoding the message. 

Lloyd Bitzer: ...rhetoric is a mode of altering reality, not by the direct application of energy to objects, but by the creation of discourse which changes reality through the mediation of thought and action.

Douglas Ehninger: [Rhetoric is] that discipline which studies all of the ways in which men may influence each other's thinking and behavior through the strategic use of symbols.

Gerard A. Hauser: Rhetoric is an instrumental use of language. One person engages another person in an exchange of symbols to accomplish some goal. It is not communication for communication's sake. Rhetoric is communication that attempts to coordinate social action. For this reason, rhetorical communication is explicitly pragmatic. Its goal is to influence human choices on specific matters that require immediate attention.

John Locke: [Rhetoric,] that powerful instrument of error and deceit. 

Alfred North Whitehead: The creation of the world -- said Plato -- is the victory of persuasion over force. The worth of men consists in their liability to persuasion.