Rhetoric: Aristotle Intro & Technological Advances

James Herrick’s quote of how he says rhetoric is the systematic study and intentional practice of effective symbolic expression, applies to a wide audience because rhetoric is present anytime we use language. This is why rhetoric developed through Christianity and written word a long time ago. Before we were blessed with all of the technologies we have today, the only way to use rhetoric was from word of mouth or written word. Which is why the creation of the internet being the most important invention since the printing press was made. Now that we have many platforms to express ourselves on the internet, rhetoric’s being used more and more but in a different way than before. The age we live in now is the most argumentative age of all. For example, online communities that debate about politics or to persuading people on what to buy based on certain brand names. To say that rhetoric is dead would be a lie because everywhere we turn there is a form of rhetoric taking place in our lives.

The use of effective symbolic expression makes it easier to persuade your audience but based off of Aristotle’s three persuasive appeals using ethos, pathos, and logos makes it easier to win people over about the argument you are making. Ethos is the way a speaker presents themselves, pathos is the attempt to sway the audience’s emotions, and logos is the intellectual argument the speaker is trying to place upon the audience’s emotion. But with all that being said, Aristotle’s definition differs from James Herrick’s quote because Aristotle sees rhetoric as a study of humanity, a practical skill, and a field of knowledge; whereas Herrick says rhetoric is a systematic study and an intentional practice of symbolic expression.

Aristotle’s theory of rhetoric is based on human nature or a study of humanity. In Aristotle’s teen years he studied philosophy under Plato for nearly two decades. He created formal logic and is the great scholar of rhetoric and poetics. He also identified the three branches of oratory: judicial, deliberative, and epideictic. Aristotle created a school for rhetoric called Lyceum where he used notes for the lectures, taking a more hands on approach of the way to learn and emphasize the meaning by instructing it.