Rhetoric

644

THEGREA1~

IDEAS

For: Othe'r discussions relevant to economic change and to the strategy of economic revolution see HISTORY 4a (2); LABOR 7c (3); LIBERTY 6b;OpPOSITION sb; PROGRESS 3b ; SLAVERY 3C; STATE Sd(2)-se; WAR AND PEACE 2C; WEALTH 9h. The general problem of the right of rebellion or the right of secession, se~JusTICE lob; LAW 6c; LIBERTY 6b; TYRANNY 3; and for the issue concerning anarchy and the condemnation of the rebel as an anarchist, see GOVERNMENT Ia; LIBERTY Ib; TYRANNY 3. ~

ADDITIONAL READINGS Listed below are works not included in Great Books o,fthe Western World, but relevant to the idea and topics with which this chapter deals. These works are divided into two groups:

I. Works by authors represented in this collection. II. Works by authors not represented in this collection. For the date, place, and other facts concerning the publication of the works cited, consult the Bibliography of Additional Readings which follows the last chapter of The Great Ideas.

I. MACHIAVELLI. The Discourses, BK III, CH 1-8 __. Florentine History F. BACON. "Of Seditions and :Troubles, " "OfFactions," in Essays HOBBES. Philosophical· Rudiments Concerning Government and Society, CH 12 - - . The Elernents. of Law, Na/ttraland. Politic, PART· II, CH 8 HUME. Of Passive Obedience; ENGELS. The Peasant War in Gerrnany ---. Germany: Ret/Olutionand' Counter-Revolution J. S. MILL. "A Few Observations on, the French Revolution" in VOL "Vindication" of the French Revolution of February 1848" in VOL II, Dissertations·· and Discussions -'--. Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform DOSTOEVSKY. The House ofthe Dead --a The Possessed MARX and ENGELS. The German Ideology, PART I MARX. The Eighteenth Brumaire ofLouis Bonaparte --a The Civil War in France i

.

,

I,

II. POLYBIUS. Histories, vOL I, BK VI SALLUST. The War with Catiline ApPIAN. The· Civil Wars LUTHER. Address to the German Nobility - - . Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants - - . Whether Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved BODIN. The Six Bookes ofa Commonweale, BK IV SPENSER. The Faerie Queene, BK I HOOKER. Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity DIGGES. Unlawfulness of Subjects Taking up Arms Against Their Soveraigne BENTHAM. A Fragment on Government, CH I (22-29) PAINE. Com1non Sense GODWIN. An Enqui1y Concerning Political]ustice, BK IV, CH 2 BURKE. Reflections on the Revolution in France - - a Letter to a Noble Lord

BURKE. Thoughts on the Prospect ofa Regicide Peace BYRON. Prometheus SHELLEY. Prometheus Unbound T. CARLYLE. The French Revolution THOREAU. Civil· Disobedience TOCQEVILLE. L'an~i('n regime (Ancient Regime) PROuDHoN~General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century '-.;, -', De lajustice dans la. revolution et dans l'eglis~ PICKENS: A Tale of Two Cities.. ,... .... ..'. , COSTER. The Glorious Adventures ofTyl UI~llSpiegl BAKUNIN. God and the State HUGO. Ninety-Three A.ToYNBEE. Lectures on the Industrial Revolution RITCHIE. Natural Rights, PART II, eH I I SHAW. The Revolutionist's Handbook ANDREYEV. The Seven Who Were Hanged SOREL. Rejlexions on Violence LENIN. Collected Works, VOL XXI, Toward the Seizure of Power - - . The State and Revolution T. E. LAWRENCE. Seven Pillars of Wisdom L. P. EDWARDS. The Natural Hz'story ofRet'olution BERDYAYEV. Christianity and the Class War TROTSKY. Literature and Revolution :-'_.-. 1ne History ofthe Russian Revolution MARITAIN. Theonas, Conversations ofa Sage, 'IX --a "On·the Purification of Means," in Freedol1'J. in the Modern- T-Vorld GORKY. Mother ---. Forty Years-the Life ofClim Sa1nghin, VOL II, The Magnet; VOL III, Other Fires; VOL IV t Specter MALRAUX. Man's Fate - - . Man's Hope BRINTON. The Anatomy of Revolution B. RUSSELL. Power, ClI 7 E. WILSON. To the Finland Station ORTEGA yCASSET. The Revolt ofthe Masses - - . TouJard a Philosophy of History LASKI. Reflections on the: Revolution of Our Time I)IW AKAR. Satyagraha : The Potver of Truth

Chapter 81: RHETORIC

INTRODUCTION E)HETORIC is traditionally regarded as ~ one.of the liberal arts. When the liberal ~rts are counted as seven, and divided into the tll1;ee and the four-the, triviu1.n and. the quadilium-rhetoric is grouped \vithgrammarand gic, not \vith the mathematical arts of arithetic and geometry, astronomy and music.. e implication of this grouping seems .to be at rhetoric, like grammar, has· something to with language or discourse; and that, like ,ie, iris concerned with thought, with reasonor argument. But if grammar is the art of iting or speaking correctly, and if logic is the of thinking correctly, it may be wondered at rhetoric can add to these other arts, either ()n· the side of language or of thought. Logic by;itself does not sufl1ee to ensure that ~oJds are properly used to express thought;.nor es gralnmar guarantee that discourse which is:f1awlessin syntax also complies with the demands of rationality.· Hence neither .grammar norlogic seems to challenge·· the function of the other, as· together they·. challenge the {unc.. tion of rhetoric. Upon· the way this challenge is met depends otonly the definition ofrhetoric, but also the alueput upon it. In the tradition of the great oks, rhetoricis both praised as a useful disciline which liberally educated men should posss, and condemned asa dishonest craft to which ecent men would not stoop. Like the words ""sophistical" and "dialectical," the epithet "rhetorical" carries, traditionally as well as curntly, a derogatory implication. The three ords sometimes. even tend to merge in meang, expressing the same reproach against trick.. y. Yet of the three, "sophistical" alone imies an unqualified rebuke. ''We do not speak of good and bad sophistry. l.lt dialectic has its defenders as v~ell as its detactors; and even those who, like Plato,charge

rhetoric with being an art of enchantment or a form of flattery also distinguish between a true ~nd a false rhetoric, the one associated with dialectic as a wholly admirable pursuit, the other classed with sophistry as avocation divorced froin virtue., According to Bacon, ,. the aim of rhetoric is to support reason, "not to oppress it." Rhetoric may be misused, but logicalso has its abuses. "Rhetoric can be namore charged," in Bacon's opinion, "with the coloring of the worse part, than logic with sophistry, or morality with vice." THE PURPOSE AND scope of rhetoric are capable of broad ·and narrow definitions. 'fhe broader view, which we shall consider subsequently, tends to merge rhetoric with poetics as together the art of eloquence in any sort of discourse. The narrower view tends to restrict rhetoric to the art of persuasion in the sphere of practical affairs. Rhetorical skill consists in getting others to embrace certain beliefs, to form the opinions or make the judglJ)entswhichthe 'speaker or writer wishes them to adopt.U~ually actioIl, not persuasion, .is .the ultimate goaL. The rules of rhetoric are supposed to give one power not merely to move the minds of men to certain conclusions but, throllgh persuasion of their minds, tOlllove men to act or not act in a certain way. The sphere of rhetoric,so conceived, is lilT!ited to-moral and political problems. The things about which ll1en deliberate before acting, the things on which they pass moraLjudgments or make politicaldecisions, constitute the subject matter of oratory, or what Hobbes calls "~x­ hortation and dehortation," that is, "