Aristotle and the Techne of Rhetoric Essay -- History Aristotle Essays

Aristotle and the Techne of RhetoricBetween the third and fifth centuries B.C. there existed a golden and classical age of thought in the ancient world, with the majority of this activity vegetable marrowed in the polis of Athens, Greece. Although the city is historically recognized for its legendary action with rival polis Sparta, Athens is perhaps best known for the creation of democracythat noble political experiment that laid the preliminary structure for most of the rights we Americans respect today. First among these rights was the freedom of speech. separately Athenian citizen (meaning male land owners numbering around five thousand) met regularly in public forums (in an open-air auditorium called the Pnyx) to discuss laws and issues. Each man had a voice in the matter, and his success in dissuading or persuading his audience meant the action Athens would potentially take. So outstanding empty words, and the study, teaching, and delivery of it, became the center of attent ion among the Athenians democracy meant individual empowerment, and good rhetoric meant the power to make change. The first nonable scholars to take on the challenge of analyzing and teaching the art of rhetoric were Isocrates, Socrates, and later, Plato. Plato soon created an academy in Athens, appropriately called the Plato Academy that attracted men who were interested in the art. One of the first students was Aristotle, who like Plato, had a lasting effect not only on the study of rhetoric, but the discipline itself. Aristotle was born in 384 BC at Stagirus, a Greek colony and seaport on the slide of Thrace. His father, Nichomachus, was a respected physician to the King Amyntas of Macedonia. This connection with the royal family served Aristotle we... ...tain an audience in an effort to create change. So no, technology is not always manifestly a machine spitting out rivets or a computer humming away in some lab somewhere. It can be, as Aristotle argues, undercoat in the logi c of the human mind for the mind is, and will always be, humankinds greatest techne.Works CitedAristotle. On Rhetoric A guess of Civic Discourse. Ed. G. A. Kennedy. Oxford New York, 1991.Aristotle (384 322 BCE.) Overview The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available Online www.utm.edu/research/iep/a/aristotl.htm. Accessed 12 Feb. 2003.Foss, S.K. Rhetorical Criticism Exploration and Practice. Prospect Heights, IL Waveland, 1996.Newbold, Dr. Webster. Review of accord technology Unit Writing and Technology. Available online www.bsu.edu/web/00wwnewbold /213/213unit1review.htm. Accessed 11 Feb. 2003.