Hi all. Remember that class is optional today. I will be there to look at drafts, help find sources, or talk through questions/problems. Remember to bring 2 copies of your paper or script to class on Tuesday. We will work with the drafts in class.
Today I was commenting on a student paper and wrote the following. The student–new to the study of rhetoric–was struggling to compose a response to Plato’s castigation of rhetoric in the Gorgias. Below is my response. I share it because I will ask all of you to write something similar in the future–to write for me a concise definition of rhetoric for someone who isn’t a scholar in the field, someone who gives you the inquisitive look of “why do you study bullshit?”
Here’s how I would sum it up: Plato is only interested in truth. He believes that truth should determine all political choices. For this to work, however, everyone has to agree on who gets to decide what is true. And they have to be willing to do whatever those special people determine is the truth.
Aristotle, Isocrates, Gorgias, and the rest of the sophists realize that, even if you do think this is how politics should work–even if this is your ideal–it could/would never work in practice. First, no one is going to hand over complete authority to someone else. Ever. Second, no one is going to agree to everything someone else says. People need to have a voice, they need to be able to question, they WILL disagree. Rhetoric, then, isn’t just a means to convince people that you have the truth (as Plato wants it to be). Rather, it is a way to approach disagreements and debates that minimizes the bullshit and the anger. It acknowledges that decisions require we have very difficult conversations (think of the contemporary debates over LGBT weddings), and that those conversations are more productive if we explore.
- why we get so emotional
- what makes people credible to contribute to a conversation
- who has the right to tell other people what to do
- what we do when your rights conflict with my rights
- how we can set up a government where everyone gets a chance to speak
There’s probably more things I could say here, but I think that’s enough to give you a sense of why rhetoric is important, and why it is more than just “mere pastry baking” as Plato describes it in the Gorgias. Rhetoric concerns itself with how we can productively approach problems.
