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Canons
Artistic Proofs:
When Cicero said, "There is nothing new under the
sun" before his death in 45 A.D. he meant just that. While his
teachings of Rhetoric were altered to reflect his own flavor, it came
straight from Plato and Socrates in 400 B.C. and Aristotle in 335
B.C. And while we today have modern technology and new ways to do
things, the basics of what you are learning in this class are the
same as in Cicero's time. As my mentor Ben Padrow said, "History did
not begin at 8:00 this morning."
So sit back and learn a little of your roots.
Back in the days of the Golden Age of Greece (480-338
B.C.), citizens had virtually nothing to do with their time. Their
wives were taking care of their homes and children and their slaves
and workers were taking care of their businesses. So they hung around
the courtyards, arguing politics and issues and lifestyles. There
were speakers abounding in Athens and speaking well gave the citizens
power. These issues were argued daily in the courtyards, but it was
the incident of Corax and Tisias which helped refine the art of
Rhetoric
First, to be a Greek citizen, you had to be male,
born of Greek parents. Women were there to give birth and raise the
children. In fact, husbands rarely spoke to their wives; they spent
the majority of their time talking to other men. Women were never
educated, only the men.
Side note: If a woman
wanted an education, she would have to give up her right to bear
Greek children to do so. The only educated women at the time were
Heterae (prostitutes). While there were many types of prostitutes
during these times, the Heterae were the most prestigious because
they were educated and could converse with the men. They died their
hair blonde and wore flowery clothes. Wives hated them, but tolerated
their existence. There were also Auletrides, who were flute players
(comparable to Geisha Girls), Porni, who lived in brothels, and
Streetwalkers, who wore shoes that left a print in the dirt which
said "follow me."
One of the duties of a citizen was to serve the
state; thus, every citizen was a member of the General Assembly for a
two year stint. The General Assembly was a council of 500 and juries
of 50 were selected from this council. The court system was much like
our Supreme Court in that one speech decided the case and each person
pleaded their own. That person could hire a speech writer, but their
own ability to persuade the jury was extremely important. So as you
can see, the ability to speak well was a major path to
success.
There were no universities as there are today;
teachers traveled from city to city, country to country. In those
days, education was for the rich and rhetoric was the key development
of man. If a student did not feel they had learned anything from his
teacher, he didn't have to pay the teacher (a practice I am very glad
we no longer have!).
Corax was a teacher who was hired by Tisias, a brash
young man. Corax was hired specifically to coach Tisias in the formal
teachings of how to plead a case - the art of Persuasion and
Argumentation. After the weeks and months of lessons, it was time to
pay the teacher. Tisias refused. He said he had not learned anything.
Corax took it before the council and it was up to Tisias to prove his
case to the jury.
When Corax went to the court yard to hang out with
the fellas, word of Tisias' actions had already been heard. The guys
were in sympathy with Corax and they punched him on the shoulder and
did those other male bonding things, saying things like, "You sure
got a raw deal." But Corax was having none of their sympathy. He
looked at the men and said, "I can't lose." The guys looked
bewildered. "How can you not lose?"
"Well," said Corax, relaxing in his role as teacher,
"If Tisias loses his case, then the court will force him to pay me."
The men nodded. "But if he wins his case, it is proof that I taught
him well how to present a case and to be persuasive!" Ahhhhhh yes,
the men murmured and punched Corax in the arm once again......and
thus the art of speaking had been refined and was now even more
respected.
Philip, Ruler of Greece, hired
Aristotle to teach his son Alexander (the Great). They
remained teacher and student for many years. As Alexander traveled
the known world, first as an army leader and then as ruler, he
continually sent plant specimens back for Aristotle to classify. In
fact, Aristotle has been so influential to Western civilization, some
believe he may have held back science for 2000 years, and his
classifications were never challenged until Darwin came along. Side note: Plato
established his academy in 385 B.C. and Aristotle was first a student
there, and later became an associate. After Plato died, the
philosophy of this academy changed and Aristotle started his own
school, Lyceum (Rhodes Island). Many women (Heterae) attended this
school and it was in fact headed by a woman, Sapho. Sapho taught
writings of joy (and some believe the women who attended were
lesbians, while others believe they were simply happy to be away from
male suppression) and she had a great deal of influence on both the
male students and women prostitutes.
In Aristotle's book,Rhetoric,
Aristotle talks of a practical way to be a speaker as well as how to
live everyday in a practical manner. In this book, Aristotle talks
about proofs:
Inartistic
and
Artistic
proofs. Every speech, according to Aristotle, must contain both these
types of proofs.
Inartistic
proofs are things which are there: facts,
statistics, oaths, documents, contracts, constitutions and the
like.
Artistic
proofs are things which the speaker
creates in the
audience. There are three artistic proofs:
ethos, pathos and
logos . Ethos is a personal proof; pathos is
an emotional proof; logos is a logical proof.
Ethos:
creating a sense of credibility for the speaker in the audience. It
is relating a sincerity, a believability in your audience. Ask
yourself, "How can I get this audience to believe in me?"
There is
initial credibility,
where you enter the speech with known expertise such as the president
of the United States has credibility as a leader. But he must also
have derived
credibility , where he continually creates ethos throughout the
speech. And there is ethos created at the end
of the speech to leave the audience with a
sense of believability.
We do not have ethos; we must create it in the
audience's mind. I am probably one of the leading experts in the
Northwest on communication between people who are disabled and
nondisabled persons and I co-teach a course in this subject with a
man who is a quadriplegic. I have to continually prove myself as
someone who has knowledge in this subject where he has to put less
effort into this credibility. But if he doesn't know his stuff well
enough, he will lose ethos in the minds of the audience even though
he is disabled Pathos:
creating an emotional involvement in the speech for the audience. It
is getting the audience to care about the speech throughout the
presentation.. Ask yourself, "How can I get this audience emotionally
involved?"
Using imagery, description, personal and
audience related examples, asking rhetorical questions, using
hypothetical examples, having the audience create a scene in their
minds are all ways to create pathos.
I once had a student who wanted to persuade the
audience we must wear seat belts (this was before the law had
passed). He worked for the fire department and had access to slides
from emergency rescue scenes. Lots of bloody burnt bent bodies, he
told me. I said, "Don't use them." He insisted they would convince
the audience of his point, and showed them anyway. Slide after slide
of bloody burnt bent bodies flashed before our eyes until we were so
overwhelmed with the pictures we tuned them out. Twenty minutes of
slides.
Out of all these slides, one qualified as pathos: a
picture of an open field, shot from the knoll of the highway looking
down. There were no bloody burnt bent bodies in the scene, just an
oak tree at a distance and a hedge farther away. He described where
the car had stopped against the tree and pointed to the hedge, where
the body was found. Why was this scene pathos when the others were
not useful as such? Because the audience had to
imagine , to
create the whole scene
in their minds instead of having it shoved down their throats. That
is pathos. Logos:
creating a sense of reasoning in the audience. It is allowing them to
make the logical connections in the speech. Ask yourself, "How can I
get this audience to see the reasonableness of this speech?"
Using reasoning patterns, being logical,
allowing the audience to understand how you reached your conclusions,
allowing the audience to reach the same conclusions with you are all
ways to create logos. Many people erroneously think using "facts" and
numbers produces logos. This is not necessarily so. Facts and numbers
are part of Inartistic
proofs; we use Inartistic proofs to create
Artistic proofs. It is
how we use them which create the specific proof, and the proofs are
often blended together - they are interwoven.
Take statistics, for example. These are
facts, Inartistic proofs , such as the statistic of one out of every
two marriages in the United States ends in divorce. It is sterile
information. Now use it in a speech.
It can be
used to gain
credibility: "The 1990 consensus reports that
fifty percent of all marriages will end in divorce."
It can be
used to gain
pathos: "Turn and look at the person sitting
next to you. One of the two of you will get a divorce."
It can be
used for
logos: "Because one out of every two
marriages here in the United States ends in divorce, it is imperative
we reform the court system to have a more fair resolve in settlements
for both women and men."
And they can be
blended
together: "The 1990 census report has found
that 50% of all marriages end in divorce. That means that one out of
every two marriages are not successful. It could be yours; it could
be the person's sitting next to you. And if you are a woman, your
chances of a fair settlement are far lower than if you are a man. We
must reform our court system." Aristotle says that every speech must have all three
artistic proofs, and they must be in balance of each other. A speech
with stronger pathos than logos is very emotionally arousing, but
there is nothing substantial for the audience to remember. A speech
which is very logical but has no involvement for the audience is
boring. While all three proofs are important, Aristotle believed the
most important is ethos. You can have great emotional involvement and
supreme logic, but if the audience does not believe in you as a
speaker then the other two are useless.
As you create your speech, keep in mind how to blend
Artistic proofs throughout the presentation. You need to be
believable as a speaker, gain an emotional connection to the
audience, and create a sense of logic in their minds.
The Canons of Rhetoric:
After the fall of Greece to the
Romans in 335 B.C., the Roman government did not want the possibility
of Greece rising to power again. Understanding that rhetoric was
power, Cato the Censor banned all Greek rhetoric. Roman rhetoric was
boring! People argued over small, minute details of how to present
cases and ideas and focused on becoming accomplished and elegant
rather than useful speakers. Although outlawed in Rome, some Romans
snuck out of the country to learn Greek rhetoric. By the time Cicero
was born, some 50 years later, the Greeks were back in vogue and
considered "great."
Cicero was from a prominent family
and could afford to study. While everyone learned Latin rhetoric,
only a few were granted the honor to learn Greek also. Cicero was
granted such an honor. As he studied this theory of rhetoric, he
stated there was nothing new to learn - the past masters (Plato and
Aristotle) had discovered it all. He then (of course!) went on to
create the five canons of rhetoric. He said these five canons must be
contained in every speech.
Invention:
discovery of the issues, gathering the ideas and information,
introducing the ideas to the audience, gaining their attention.
Disposition:
organizing this information - placing it in a reasonable order.
Elocution:
style of language - how we use the language most effectively for the
audience and the speech.
Pronuntiation:
the delivery of the presentation - how we deliver the message, with
the voice being the most effective tool a speaker owns.
Memory:
everything depends on memory Cicero
was a lawyer and a well respected statesman for the
government in Sicily. He gained notoriety through representing small,
well presented cases and built up a strong reputation. He was a
rather flamboyant lawyer - much like the F. Lee Bailey of his times -
and was noted as an ornate, effusive speaker who used broad gestures
to keep his audience involved. His most famous case was the Cataline
trial where Cicero represented the government against Cataline for
crimes against the government. Cataline was tried for attempting to
overthrow the government. Cicero won and, even though Cicero argued
against the death penalty, Cataline was put to death.
Following the Cataline trial, Cicero
was found guilty of irregularities in preparation of the trial and
kicked out of Rome. He remained political and supported Pompeii but
later reconciled with Caesar (even though he disliked Caesar greatly
and continued to speak out against this dictatorship. In fact, he
hated dictatorship so much, he helped persuade Rome to march war
against Mark Anthony on Octavius' side, even though he was a
pacifist.) In 43 A.D., he was proscribed to be killed (people were
placed on a secret list by the government for a proscription of their
death), but he learned of this and escaped. He was eventually
assassinated in 45 A.D. and his head and hands - his two most
powerful tools - were put on public display. Cataline's wife insisted
they be presented to her as proof he was dead. They were presented to
her on a silver platter.
And then along came Quintilian (35-95
A.D.). Our entire educational system is based on Quintilian's theory
of how to be good teachers. Quintilian was a Spaniard who was sent to
Rome for his education. As he studied rhetoric, he created the "Good
Man" theory. Eloquence was evil; in order to be a good man, you must
have justice on your side and be a man of virtue. It is something he
believed you can not learn; it is natural in you. You are either a
good man or you are not. In order to be a speaker, you must be a Good
Man.
While every
Sophist
(wisdom-teacher) was different in their approach to rhetoric -
Plato
was idealistic and approached it in a manner which was not useful to
the everyday person,
Aristotle
was linear and approached it in a logical manner - you did not have
to be a good man, you had to create a feeling of goodwill in your
audience,
Cicero
was eloquent and flamboyant and used language in a way that captured
the imagination of his audience, and
Quintilian
was stylized - you should not raise your arms higher than mid-breast
nor move in a manner which mussed your toga - each shared the same
basics in rhetorical theory. There must be ethos, there must be
pathos, there must be logos in every speech. The language must be
clear, accurate and grammatically correct. The audience must be
engaged. And above all else, it must be supported well
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