Final Reflective Research Paper Rhetoric Traditions I

ars praedicandi – As the Holy Roman Empire began to increase its power over the people, religion and rhetoric began to cross paths and become equally influential.  Ars praedicandi is the theory of preaching.  It provided instruction in the composition of sermons either as an attachment or support to a collection of sermons or as a … Continue reading Final Exam Review Rhet. Trad. I →

1.   Rhetoric gained prominence at the beginning of the Renaissance because the people finally had their voice again.  After the Roman Empire fell apart and feudalism crumbled, discussion and communal thinking were allowed to bring forth problems that the previously voiceless peasants were dealing with.  In Rome and the Feudal system, all that mattered … Continue reading Rhetoric in the Renaissance →

Since Ancient Athens and the Roman Empire, rhetoric has grown in that students are now challenged to not just memorize rules and organizational guidelines, but to actually pay attention to what they listen to or read in order to imitate their technique. Following Athens and Rome, much of the emphasis was placed on writing and … Continue reading Rhetoric’s Expansion →

Summing Up Ancient Rome

Summing Up Christian Europe 300 CE to 1400 CE

The major theme in this chapter is that rhetoric may be used as defensively, to protect oneself or others, but it can also be used to attack, possibly innocent, others.  St. Augustine was deeply committed to the church after he found Christ while he was teaching rhetoric and believed in the morality of all things … Continue reading Themes of Chapter 6 (Herrick) →

Plato’s issue of mere belief vs. true knowledge come from his distaste for Gorgias and the sophists as a whole.  In Plato’s Gorgias, he writes of a conversation deciding who would win a senate physician chair.  Gorgias says that the rhetor would be able to win the seat over a career physician because he has the … Continue reading Issues Between Mere Belief and True Knowledge →

I may be wrong in my assumption, but I believe that Gorgias would say that music is not rhetoric.  In Plato’s Gorgias before Socrates asks, “With what is rhetoric concerned,” he asks Gorgias to confirm that “. . . music is concerned with the composition of melodies. . .” Gorgias confirms and then later again confirms that, … Continue reading Music’s Relation to Rhetoric →