The Greeks and Romans Studied Rhetoric the Art of Persuasive Public Speaking Quizlet

Learning Objectives

Recognize the roots of modern rhetoric in ancient cultures.

Whatsoever history of public speaking will have a vanishing point, a bespeak beyond which nosotros can only guess and speculate. Since speaking is imperceptible (nonpermanent), our simply noesis about how aboriginal people spoke—and what they talked nearly—comes to usa through written records and stories passed downward orally from generation to generation. Scientists approximate that humans began using language betwixt 100,000 and 50,000 years ago, whereas the earliest writing we know of appeared in Mesopotamia around 5500 years ago.^[1] Our agreement of ancient oral civilization is either filtered through endless retellings or reliant on the relatively recent invention of writing. From both sources, however, nosotros can run into that humans accept been using language to inform, entertain, and persuade for many thousands of years.

In the material that follows, we are concerned primarily with the history of rhetoric, which nosotros can remember of virtually broadly as the art of speaking well. Where did we get our notion of how "expert" speakers practise their art? Equally we will encounter, our modern understanding of rhetorical skill is the product of a long history of cultural encounter and commutation. The interwoven traditions that atomic number 82 to our ideas almost public speaking stand for a wide range of practices and experiences, which take led to an even greater diversity of contemporary expectations around public speaking. Each of us has different criteria for the kind of speech that moves, informs, and persuades us. To a big extent, these criteria are influenced by the cultures and histories that make upwardly our identities, too as the cultural objects with which nosotros choose to interact.

Ancient Mesopotamia

The ancient Sumerian collection of proverbs called The Instructions of Šuruppag is one of the oldest written texts we know of (c. 2600 BCE—c. 2500 BCE). Several of the proverbs offer advice well-nigh proper public speech. For example:

Sumerian Cylinder Seal of Rex Ur-Nammu. The moon god is represented by the crescent.

• Don't speak fraudulently; in the terminate information technology will bind you lot like a trap.
• To speak arrogantly is like burn down, an herb that makes the stomach ill.
• You should not boast in beer halls similar a deceitful human.
• (When someone says) "Allow me tell you lot" almost something he (pretends to) know, and comes forwards as a witness in a case he knows naught about, it is an anathema to [the moon god].^[2]

Fifty-fifty in the earliest known writing, and then, we see communication almost how to speak properly in public: don't prevarication, don't boast, and don't pretend to know things.

Aboriginal Egypt

Nosotros tin can learn something nearly the way public speaking was viewed in aboriginal Egypt from sebayt ("pedagogy") texts (ancestors of the text y'all're reading now!), which consist of proverbs and teachings about how one should comport. 1 of the oldest known examples of this genre is the Instructions of Kagemni, which was composed during the Eye Kingdom of Egypt, one-time between 1929 BCE and 1895 BCE. The author of the Instructions describes the virtuous "silent man," who is modest, at-home, and practices self-control. This type of person is contrasted with his polar opposite, the "heated man," in the later Education of Amenemope.^{[3] [4]}

Facsimile of a papyrus by an bearding ancient Egyptian scribe c. 1900 BCE, showing the outset of the Instructions of Kagemni.

Ancient Greece

In Ancient Greece, we notice the well-nigh recognizable origins of rhetoric, including the word itself, which comes from the discussionrhetor, a speaker or teacher of public speaking. Among the virtually of import Greek rhetors we find Aspasia of Miletus, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who have come to be regarded as the foremother and forefathers of rhetoric.

The Debate Of Socrates And Aspasia, Nicolas-André Monsiau, c. 1800

Although little is known about her because she vanished from history circa 401 BCE, Aspasia of Miletus was possibly the foremother of classical rhetoric every bit she is rumored to accept taught rhetoric and domicile economics to Socrates. Her social position was that of a hetaera, or companion who was "more than educated than respectable women, and [was] expected to accompany men on occasions where conversation with a woman was appreciated, merely wives were not welcome" (Carlson xxx). Her specialty was philosophy and politics and she became the only female member of an elite circle that included the most prominent teachers and speakers of the day. In that circumvolve she made both friends and enemies as a result of her political savvy and public speaking ability.

Plato (429–347 BCE) wrote about rhetoric in the form of dialogues wherein the main grapheme is his instructor Socrates (469–399 BCE). Through this grade, the dialectic was born. While this term has been debated since its beginnings, Plato conceptualized it as a process of questioning and answering that would lead to the ultimate truth. Recollect for a moment about contemporary situations that use this method to advance noesis. What most an in-class discussion wherein the professor questions the students about an interpretation or meaning of a text? Or the role that a therapist takes by asking a series of questions of a patient to help the patient understand their own thoughts, motives, and behavioral patterns? These are just two examples of the dialectic at work. While Plato contributed a nifty deal to classical rhetorical theory, he was also very disquisitional of it. In the dialogueGeorgias, for case, Plato argued that because rhetoric does non crave a unique trunk of knowledge it is a imitation rather than truthful art.

While Plato condemned the art of rhetoric, his studentAristotle (384–322 BCE) believed in the possibility of rhetoric as a means of creating customs. The dialectical, or give-and-take approach, allows people to share and test ideas with the goal of a more prosperous metropolis-country. He divers rhetoric as the power to see the available means of persuasion in each item case.

Aristotle divided the "means of persuasion" into three parts, or 3 creative proofs, necessary to persuade others: logical reason (logos), human character (ethos), and emotional appeal (pathos). These three approaches keep to shape the way we analyze persuasive strategies. We'll take a closer await at logos, ethos, and pathos in another module.

The Classical Period flourished for nearly a millennium in and around Hellenic republic equally commonwealth gained prominence. Citizens learned public speaking from early teachers known every bit Sophists. Sophists were self-appointed professors of how to succeed in the civic life of the Greek states. Have you ever been called sophisticated? Peradventure you learned from a sophist! (From the Greek wordsophistes "a master of one's craft; a wise or prudent man, one clever in matters of daily life"; from sophos "skilled in a handicraft, cunning in one's craft; clever in matters of everyday life, shrewd; skilled in the sciences.")^[5] In the word sophistry, which ways a clever statement designed to deceive the listener, nosotros however retain some of the Greeks' concern about the way rhetorical skill could be used for dishonest ends.

Ancient Rome

Two other primal figures in classical rhetoric are Cicero (106–43 BCE) and Quintillian (c. 35–95). They deserve recognition for combining much of what was known from the Greeks and Romans into more complete theoretical systems. Many of the concepts to emerge from this fourth dimension are even so relevant today, although they may have been transformed in some style to reflect a more contemporary context. Yous may, for example, recognize them in the setting of a public speaking grade.

One of Cicero's major contributions was the the formation of the "five canons of rhetoric":

• invention
• system
• manner
• memory
• delivery

All these contributions should be easily recognizable equally the stages of oral communication training. Chances are, the speeches you requite in this class will be evaluated according to a version of the five canons!

Aboriginal China

The ancient roots of modern rhetoric achieve well beyond the Mediterranean and the Middle Eastward. The study of rhetoric had a long and vibrant history in aboriginal China. Xing Lu provides the meanings of key Chinese rhetorical terms as used in classical Chinese texts.

• Yan (言) speech, talks, and the employ of linguistic communication
• Ci (辞) modes of speech, types of discourse, eloquence, fashion
• Jian（谏） giving advice, persuasion
• Shui/shuo（说) persuasion/ explanation, idea, thought
• Ming（名) naming, symbol using, rationality, epistemology
• Bian（辩) distinction change, justice-eloquence, arguments, persuasion, debate, disputation, discussion^[6]

Confucius, fresco from a Western Han tomb of Dongping County, Shandong province, China. Bearding Chinese painter of the Western Han period, (202 BC – 9 Advert)

Possibly the most influential teachings in the development of ancient Chinese rhetoric were those of Confucius (Chinese: 孔夫子; pinyin: Kǒng Fūzǐ, 551–479 BCE), especially after Confucian ideas were adopted as the official ideology of the Han court (from 141 BCE onward). Similar Plato, Confucius was worried well-nigh the fashion clever speech could muffle bad motives. For this reason, Confucius ever emphasized that virtue is found in deportment, rather than words (Ding, Huiling. "Confucius's Virtue-Centered Rhetoric: A Example Study of Mixed Research Methods in Comparative Rhetoric."Rhetoric Review, vol. 26, no. 2, 2007, pp. 142–159, 150.JSTOR, world wide web.jstor.org/stable/20176771)

In his word of the speech-action, or yan-xing human relationship, Confucius stresses that actions play a more important role than words in persuasion. A gentleman "is quick in activeness still cautious in speech" (ane.14, 4.24, 12.three) and "always puts his ideas into action before speaking about it" (two.13). He should be sincere and true-blue when speaking and "listens to what people say [and] observes what they practise" before trusting them. (5.10) (Ding, p. 150)

Ban Zhao, as painted by Gai Qi, 1799

While most of the classical theorists were men, theorizing about traditionally male person roles, Ban Zhao (c. 45 CE–115 CE, besides spelled Pan Chao) provides historical insight into Eastern rhetoric and the part of women in rhetoric. A stiff believer in the benefits of education, she was one of the first people to argue for the education of girls and women. Writing on the 4 qualifications of womanhood (virtue, words, bearing, and work), she said of womanly words, they "need be neither clever in debate nor keen in chat," but women should "cull words with care; to avoid vulgar language; to speak at advisable times; and to not weary others (with much conversation), [these] may exist chosen the characteristics of womanly words" (Ban Zhao 417). Although our views of gender and gender roles are very different than those of Ban Zhao's time, information technology is revealing to see how she creates a space for women to speak and be heard within the constraints of her cultural context.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-publicspeaking/chapter/the-ancient-world/

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