For this Proposal I have made the choice of observing Winston Churchill’s “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech. This speech was addressing to the house of commons about the success of rescuing over 300,000 troops from France in 1940. I will be observing the concepts and strategies that Winston Churchill used delivering this speech to his audience. Churchill’s speech was epideixis, which means that it was prepared for an occasion such as this one. I will compare his concepts used in his speech to what Aristotle provided such as, Kairos or arête. I will examine the type of rhetoric Winston Churchill used and his appeal through (pathos, ethos, logos) to his audience. Pathos being an emotional way of delivering to ones audience. ethos is something that is a characteristic of a culture that many have some knowledge of. Logos uses logic to persuade the audience into your beliefs.  If there’re any questions or contradiction (Dissoi logoi) throughout his speech they will be brought up and discussed in detail.       

1. Here’s a list of what I’ve learned so far this semester about the historical and cultural context of the rise of rhetoric in the Classical period we’ve studied so far.

Rhetoric first appeared in Greece when the sophists who were foreign teachers came to Greece to teach the Greeks about rhetoric. Because of this the common citizen who would normally not have a high level of education were able to advance their skill set and learning abilities. During this me that the sophists were their Greece became a democracy which meant that the regular citizen had the right to speak in public assemblies about issues that concerned them.

2. What I’ve learned affirmed (or contradicted) my prior knowledge or experience in the following ways:

What I have learned in this class so far has affirmed my prior knowledge. Prior to taking this class I had little to no knowledge or experience with rhetoric. Before learning about rhetoric I simply thought that it was some kind of speech but did not have a confirmed idea of what it was regarding to persuasion. I learned that rhetoric can be used in just and unjust situations and that it gave power to those who could use it correctly. I learned that the sophists were foreign people that came to Athens and taught many the power of speech. During this time Greece became a democracy which gave the citizens a chance to use this new knowledge by speaking about improvements for their city.

3. Here are connections I see among the ideas I’ve studied so far.

Some connections I have notice would be between Plato’s Gorgias and Phaedrus. Both of them talk about rhetoric but have slightly different views. Gorgias was trying to reveal the problems with rhetoric. He was trying to explain how it can be used for bad instead of good. It all depends on the individual’s moral standards. Therefore, some could use the art of persuasion to persuade others into believing a lie. Phaedrus on the other hand was more optimistic and talked about how the rhetorician must understand truth and justice. Phaedrus believed that rhetoric was founded upon the love of wisdom and a knowledge of justice.

4. On the basis of these observations, here’s what I think I’d like to know (or do) next:

I would like to pursue the history of rhetoric and see how it was different and that types of ways others used it outside of Greece. I would also like to watch film of famous speakers using rhetoric as their way of controlling the speech and would like to hear examples of what rhetoric was to them. I would as well like to compare the differences between the philosophers that we have studied to those that we will study in the coming up weeks.

            In Aristotle’s book on rhetoric, he makes the claim that “truth does not always persuade.” This is an interesting question to bring up. I believe that many find this claim confusing because most want to believe that no matter what, truth will always prevail. However, this is not always the case. In the reading Aristotle notes that “knowledge is teaching, but teaching is impossible [with some audiences].” I believe what he meant by this is that not everyone wants to learn. Some just want to hear a good story that’s exciting and interesting and then believe it to be true. Because the truth is not always what you want to hear. Take Hitler for example. He pulled off one of the biggest lies in history. The German people were in a depression and Hitler started blaming the Jews for all of their problems. This was not truth but Germany believed it because they wanted to have someone to blame for what they were going through. This just shows how even though consciously we want to believe the truth, it doesn’t always turn out that way. If one can persuade someone through false, pretenses it can be very easy to alter their beliefs without them knowing.    

Help Received: Word spell check, Aristotle’s book 1, google to look up lies that Hitler told.

Tucker V. Olshove