Tucker V. Olshove

ERH 201WX

COL. McDonald.

12/01/16

We Shall Fight on the Beaches

Aristotle states that “Rhetoric is the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” (Herrick 69). In other words, a rhetorician must observe the context of a situation to obtain the correct knowledge available to make for a decisive argument against the opposition to persuade his audience or opponent. For a rhetor to create a persuasive argument they must have a standing knowledge of the topic. In Winston Churchill’s “We Fight on the Beaches” speech he uses several concepts of Aristotle’s rhetoric, such as: deliberate and epainos oratory. Deliberative oratory is when one presents and delivers a speech to inform and persuade a legislated assembly. (254). Epainos oratory is used to give praise to someone or for an event. (254). As well as the three fundamental proofs of rhetoric: ethos, pathos, logos.

Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons was a deliberative oratory speech, because it was presented to a legislated assembly. (254). Churchill used this form of oratory when he presented his speech to the House of Commons. he gave praise for evacuating soldiers from Dunkirk in World War two. He gave admiration to the British military when he stated, “As a result of a most skillfully conducted retreat and German errors, the bulk of the British Forces reached the Dunkirk bridgehead.” (www.winstonchurchill.org). Churchill’s presentation of this speech to the House of Commons was more than an after report explaining what happened and the success at Dunkirk. Churchill used the opportunity of his speech to bring forth the opportunity to reflect on British forces and reiterate that they will not abandon the fight against Germany nor will Britain ever surrender. As well as to try and persuade their allies to join arms in the fight against Germany.

Another type of rhetoric Churchill uses is epidictic rhetoric. Epainos is when the speaker is giving praise of blame to something. An example of when Winston Churchill used this was during his address when he stated “A miracle of deliverance, achieved by valor, by perseverance, by perfect discipline, by faultless service, by resource, by skill, by unconquerable fidelity, is manifest to us all.” (www.winstonchurchill.com). With this being said, Churchill gave praise to the achievement and success that the British Forces had rescuing thousands of soldiers from France. This was important to Churchill’s speech because instead focusing on the British soldiers being forced back and nearly defeated by the Germans he displayed to his audience that even though the British forces were retreating he praised how well the operation was executed.

Throughout Churchill’s speech he applies the three proofs of rhetoric ethos, pathos, and logos. Churchill uses logos throughout his entire speech. Logos is the study of arguments. An account, or clear and logical explanation. (256). He presented the account of what happened in the operation of Dunkirk. Churchill’s main topic for his speech was about Dunkirk and was hence then talking about the operation and what led up to it. He began with the description of how the Belgium king asked for help from the French to help defend their land. Later Churchill goes in to the hardened fight between the air forces of Germany and the Royal Air Force. Churchill’s constant accounts of the battle drew a picture to the allied forces of what had happened in the weeks of fighting. His explanation of what went into the operation gave clarification to the public of what was really happening in the war against Germany.

Pathos is used when an orator is trying to establish an emotional connection with the audience. Pathos is an emotional and psychological way to present a speech to one’s audience. Churchill presents pathos in his speech towards his conclusion of the speech citing, “We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall never surrender.” (www.winstonchurchill.org). At this point in Churchill’s speech He was finished with talking about retreating. He wanted the British people to know that they will fight whatever the cost to win and destroy their enemies. Pathos took a very important role in Churchill’s speech because he needed to produce an emotionally connected speech to his audience. Churchill needed to bring the citizens of Britain unified together to help regroup and defeat the Germans.

Ethos is to show the audience the audience that you are knowledgeable about the subject you are presenting to them. It shows the characteristics of how an orator can present their speech and how the he can use the audience’s views to is advantage in persuading them. Churchill’s audience knew the he was knowledgeable of what he was speaking about because of his prior military service and his status as prime minister. Churchill delivered a very strong speech to the House of Commons and the citizens of Britain. Throughout his speech Churchill depicted facts about the war to his audience and gave assurance that their forces will defeat the Germans and win the war.

To conclusion of Winston Churchill’s oratory speech, “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” he presents a great work rhetoric. Both in means of persuasion and using the three fundamentals of rhetoric to deliver an account of the operation that was conducted at Dunkirk. Aristotle’s Rhetoric is to observe any given chance the available means of persuasion. Churchill accomplished this in his address to the House of Commons by observing the public over the months of his time in office and new that the citizens of Britain needed to be motivated if they were to survive and win the war. Churchill used the opportunity of this event to produce a motivated speech to the country about the future and their goals for it.

Help Received: Bradly Smith for better understanding of the definition of ethos.

Spell and grammar check. http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/logosterm.htm to look at examples of how logos is used.

            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  

In Plato and Phaedrus discussion of rhetoric several questions arose for me. The first one being; when is a speech well written and delivered, and when is it not? I believe a well written speech takes time to develop. One must do the research necessary to develop a knowledgeable speech that many can understand and relate to. Once this is done the author has the potential to deliver a well constructed speech to his or her audience. The second question I had was, where is deception most likely to occur? Socrates and Phaedrus go into detail about what they thought of deception. is it easier to deceive one on small matters or changes. Or are larger matters and topics easier to make one believe. Socrates helps answers this when he states “If you are to deceive someone else and to avoid deception yourself, you must know precisely the respects in which things are similar and dissimilar.” I believe what Socrates was trying to say was that you need knowledge of a subject you wish to manipulate so you can change the truths as little as possible. Therefore, it is easier to get away with making small changes to subjects  than the larger issues that are more complicated to alternate.       

In the reading “Against The Sophists” I found it very interesting when the author examined the different qualities of oratory. When he stated “oratory is good only if it has the qualities of fitness for the occasion, propriety of style, and originality of treatment.” I believe what the author was trying to portray was that many can give a speech only some have the knowledge, confidence, and talent to be great at it. The author solidifies his belief when he referred to talent and it’s importance in speech by saying. “But it cannot fully fashion men who are without natural aptitude. Although, this is what I think the author was trying to convey in the sentence I disagree with him. One certainly does need knowledge and confidence to perform a speech well. However, I do not think one needs the talent to be great. I believe one can develop such skills with practice to where one has the ability to be great. This is very important because in Greece many people were not highly educated and did not possess many knowledgeable traits. Therefore, when these people began being taught by the sophists they had to work hard to become confident and knowledgeable. Work was their way of gaining talent and becoming great oratory.           

Welcome to your brand new blog at Virginia Military Institute ePortfolio.

To get started, simply log in, edit or delete this post and check out all the other options available to you.

For assistance, visit our comprehensive support site, check out our Edublogs User Guide guide or stop by The Edublogs Forums to chat with other edubloggers.

You can also subscribe to our brilliant free publication, The Edublogger, which is jammed with helpful tips, ideas and more.