The word rhetoric is like a massive game of whisper down the alley. Originating in ancient Greece, it has made its way to modern society. However, what we know as rhetoric today is not quite the rhetoric Aristotle had envisioned. In ancient times, rhetoric was known to be a way to communicate effectively, whereas today, rhetoric is perceived as a way to persuade and deceive.

According to Hawee in “Ancient Rhetorics: Their differences and the Differences they Make,” Aristotle himself defined rhetoric as “the power of finding the available arguments suited to a given situation” (1994). It’s definition was not just limited to that however. It encompassed  everything from citizenship to valueing opinions. In fact, as explained in “Ancient Rhetorics,” it was creating with the assumption that humans will disagree, making rhetoric simply a more civic way to disagree.

In today’s modern world however, rhetoric has taken on a completely different form. For many, rhetoric is thought of as political speeches, or a way to use language to one’s advantage. According to the “Encyclopedia of Rhetoric,” its definition has had many shifts some of which being the shift from argument to language, from the consumer to the speaker, from something symbolic to something oral (Sloane, 2006). Very recently however, the original definitions of rhetoric have been emerging in education systems and have slowly started shifting into society. Rhetoric education has become more and more popular. According to The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Iowa, “Rhetoric is not just empty words or fine political speeches. Rhetoric is the study and art of writing and speaking well, being persuasive, and knowing how to compose successful writing and presentations” (“What is Rhetoric?”), giving rhetoric a more academic approach and definition.

Looking at the evolution of rhetoric, it stands to show how society has changed. In the ancient times, rhetoric acknowledged that disagreement was natural and it offered a means to deal with disagreement in a civil and civic way. Today however, rhetoric is given a bad reputation due to its association with disagreement, which has a negative connotation in society. In ancient times, rhetoric was used to agree to disagree (Hawee, 1994) while today it is used as a means to go against disagreement. Personally, being civic is more a mentality and a set of values than it is a sequence of actions and ancient rhetoric aligns with that.

References

Hawhee, D., & Crowley, S. (1994). Ancient Rhetorics . Pearson. Retrieved August 26, 2017.

Sloane, T. O. (Ed.). (2006). Modern Rhetoric. Encyclopedia of Rhetoric. Retrieved August 28, 2017, from

http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195125955.001.0001/acref-9780195125955-e-161

What is Rhetoric? . (n.d.). Retrieved August 28, 2017, from

https://clas.uiowa.edu/rhetoric/about/what-is-rhetoric