Defining Rhetoric

“The duty of Rhetoric is to apply Reason to Imagination for the better moving of the will.”

-          Francis Bacon

From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance Era to modern day, the characterization and purposefulness of rhetoric motivated continuous debate in consideration of its functionality within disparate areas of study, including art, science, and philosophy, as well as the role of rhetoric in politics, particularly speech writing.  Early evaluators worked diligently to determine the value, if any, of rhetoric in verbal and written communication. Arduous research, innovative documentation, and elaborate explanations formed collaborative definitions of the term, as fathers of philosophical thinking emphasized an assigned meaning of rhetoric.

Corax of Syracuse, founder of the art of rhetoric, instituted eloquent language as a method of engaging story telling – comprised of an introduction, an argument or proof, and a conclusion – established for citizens representing themselves within the legal system, and based on the perception that information presented could not be proven as absolute certainty (12). Later Plato accepted rhetoric to be grounded in philosophy, dejecting the untruths in place of well-established proofs. Aristotle classified rhetoric for its means of persuasion in regards to a particular case, a derivative of Plato’s definition, accomplished through the interworking of style, organization, and delivery (14).

Cicero believed that rhetoric was an integration of natural ability, comprehensive knowledge of liberal arts. According to Cicero, rhetoric was a learned skill only achievable in the course of formal instruction, giving weight on the importance of education during the Middle Ages (15). Peter Ramus placed less emphasis on the rubric of logic and sought to prove rhetoric to encompass only style and delivery (16); Francis Bacon gathered rhetoric to contain a notion of rationality; and George Campbell expressed it in terms or sensory stimulation, common sense, and intuitive sense shared but all humans (17).

There were countless scholars of the art of rhetoric following those intellectual minds; yet, commonalities overlapped. One thinker builds upon or revitalizes an idea manufactured by a rhetoric analyst before him. A thorough understanding of rhetoric is, within itself, complex prior to additions made by individual contributors. Conceptualizations become repetitive in nature and definition.

Rhetoric is art. Rhetoric is communication. Rhetoric is presentation. Rhetoric engages audiences to believe, or at the least, consider messages delivered by its writer, speaker, designer, instructor, political representative, and so on. Rhetoric responds to questions and convinces. It motivates a discussion, exhibits power, and empowers presenters and audiences though words, phrases, and even body language and expressions. Rhetoric engrosses the imagination and leaves more to be imagined due to its creative impact. It teaches logic and defines turning points, delivering audiences from the commencement to the center to the margins of an event. Rhetoric is innate and a learned skill.

How is rhetoric defined? To integrate determinations conceived by originators of the study of rhetoric: simply, yet, elaborately put, rhetoric is a means of relaying visual, verbal, and written information to a critical and decision-making audience, encompassing elocution, presentation, logic, truths, and creativity to form an expressive art of communication.