CHAPTER 1 Persuasion in the Rhetorical Tradition J. Michael Hogan he study of persuasion can be traced In this chapter, I survey the rhetorical tradi- back to ancient Greece, the birthplace of tion with a view toward illuminating some of T both rhetoric and democracy. As Dillard the differing, even competing, perspectives on and Pfau (2002) noted in the first edition of The persuasion over the long history of rhetorical Persuasion Handbook, Aristotle “provided the studies. In the process I highlight two cultural first comprehensive theory of rhetorical dis- imperatives that help to account for the emphasis course” (p. ix) in the fifth century BCE, and on politics and ethics in the Western rhetorical persuasion was central to that theory. Yet per- tradition: (1) the need to educate for citizenship, suasion has not always been at the center of and (2) an ongoing debate over the rules or rhetorical theory. During the Enlightenment, norms of democratic deliberation. In the rhe- the scope of rhetoric broadened to include aes- torical tradition, these two imperatives link the thetic and psychological concerns, rendering study of rhetoric to democratic theory, inspiring persuasion secondary to considerations of normative conceptions of persuasion that “taste” and “sympathy.” More recently, narra- emphasize the responsibilities that go along with tive and dramatistic theories of rhetoric have the right of free speech in a democracy. By sur- emphasized identity or “identification” over veying how rhetorical theorists historically have persuasion, and some rhetorical scholars have distinguished responsible or legitimate free even denounced persuasion as a mechanism of speech from propaganda and demagoguery, “control and domination” (Foss & Griffin, 1995, I illuminate the intimate connections between p. 2). Still, persuasion has remained a dominant rhetorical theories of persuasion and democracy theme in the rhetorical tradition, with two itself. broad concerns distinguishing the rhetorical I begin by revisiting the classical/humanistic perspective from more scientific or empirical roots of the rhetorical tradition, from the soph- approaches to persuasion: a focus on the politi- ists of ancient Greece to the Roman rhetoricians, cal or civic contexts of persuasion, and an over- Cicero and Quintilian. I then sketch the history riding emphasis on ethical concerns. of rhetorical theory through modern times, 2 Chapter 1. Persuasion in the Rhetorical Tradition——3 including the attack on rhetoric in the early The Concept of Persuasion modern period and the impact of the belletristic in Rhetorical Theory and elocutionary movements on rhetorical the- ory. Finally, I consider more recent developments The story of rhetoric’s roots in ancient Greece in rhetorical theory, including the influence of has been told many times—and for a variety of Burkean “dramatism,” the rise of social move- purposes. For generations, that story was used to ment studies, and the “postmodern” challenge to justify speech programs in American colleges and the rhetorical tradition. As we shall see, many of universities. At the height of the Cold War, for these more recent developments have been cast example, W. Norwood Brigance, one of the pio- as alternatives to the classical/humanistic tradi- neers of the American speech discipline, invoked tion of persuasion (indeed, some have challenged rhetoric’s ancient roots to argue that the teaching the very idea of a “rhetorical tradition”). Yet of speech was one of the distinguishing marks of despite these various challenges, the classical tra- a free society. Democracy and the “system of dition’s emphasis on the ethics of civic persua- speechmaking were born together,” Brigance sion remains strong in contemporary rhetorical (1961) wrote, and since ancient times “we have theory and criticism. never had a successful democracy unless a large In the second section of the chapter, I reflect part, a very large part, of its citizens were effec- on the distinctive contributions of the American tive, intelligent, and responsible speakers.” tradition of rhetoric and public address to the According to Brigance, there were only two kinds theory and practice of persuasion. Surveying the of people in the modern world: “Those who in linkages between America’s great experiment in disagreements and crises want to shoot it out, and democracy and evolving attitudes toward rheto- those who have learned to talk it out.” Brigance ric and persuasion, I begin by recalling how the concluded that if America hoped to remain a founders’ constitutional design reflected a vision “government by talk,” it needed leaders who of a deliberative democracy grounded in neo- knew how to talk “effectively, intelligently, and classical rhetorical theory. I then trace how the responsibly,” as well as citizens trained to “listen American rhetorical tradition evolved during and judge” (pp. 4–5). the so-called golden age of American oratory, as Since Brigance’s day, revisionist scholars have Jacksonian democracy brought a more populist told and “retold” rhetoric’s story to advance a rhetorical style to American politics and the variety of agendas. In Rereading the Sophists, for debate over slavery tested the limits of civic per- example, Jarratt (1991) reconsidered the Greek suasion. I next consider the revival of the Amer- sophists from a feminist perspective and con- ican rhetorical tradition during the Progressive cluded that they were more progressive in their Era, as new media, changing demographics, and thinking about “social needs” (p. 28) than most a culture of professionalization revolutionized of the more prominent figures in the classical the way Americans talked about politics and tradition. In Jarratt’s rereading of the tradition, gave rise to a new “science” of mass persuasion. the sophists provided an alternative to patriar- Finally, I reflect on the impact of new electronic chal rhetoric by privileging “imaginative recon- media and the relationship between television structions” over “empirical data” (p. 13) and by and the decline of civic discourse in the closing broadening the purview of rhetoric beyond decades of the 20th century. I conclude with canonical texts. The sophists also modeled a some brief reflections on the contemporary cri- more collaborative and democratic model of sis of democracy in America and the efforts of a rhetorical education, according to Jarratt—one new, interdisciplinary deliberative democracy more consistent with today’s best research on movement to revive the public sphere. critical pedagogy and “social cognition” (p. 92). 4——PART I. Fundamental Issues The sophists were no doubt important to the In the master narrative of the rhetorical tradi- rhetorical tradition. But so, too, were Plato, Aris- tion, Plato’s student, Aristotle, rescued rhetoric’s totle, and the great Roman rhetoricians, Cicero reputation by devising an “amoral” or “morally and Quintilian. It is important to recognize that neutral” theory focused purely on techné, or the no single paradigm defines the classical rhetori- mechanics of persuasive speaking. Leaving ethi- cal tradition. Rather, that tradition consists of cal questions to the philosophers, Aristotle ongoing debates over the philosophical status of defined rhetoric as the faculty of “discovering in rhetoric, the best methods of rhetorical educa- the particular case . the available means of per- tion, and the aims, scope, power, and ethics of suasion” (Cooper, 1932, p. 7), and he recognized rhetoric—indeed, over the very definition of that this power “could be used either for good or “rhetoric” itself. Yet even as we recognize the rhe- ill” (Kennedy, 1991, p. ix). While Aristotle torical tradition itself as a dynamic and ongoing refrained from grand moral pronouncements, set of controversies, we can identify two empha- however, he did infuse his rhetorical theory with ses in the classical tradition that have distin- a strong ethical or normative component. Empha- guished the rhetorical perspective ever since: sizing moral character as a key element in per- (1) an emphasis on the role of persuasion in suasion and celebrating reasoned argument over politics and civic life, and (2) an overriding con- appeals to the emotions, Aristotle’s rhetoric was cern with the moral character of the speaker and hardly morally neutral about what constituted the ethics of persuasion. responsible persuasion in civic life. Moreover, his vision of civic persuasion demanded broad learn- ing in philosophy, history, literature, and human The Ancient Tradition psychology. For Aristotle, rhetoric was not only a moral but also an architectonic art, encompass- The sophists were the original professors of ing all realms of humanistic and scientific rhetoric in Greece, and they initiated a long tradi- understanding. tion of teaching speech and persuasion as educa- Similarly, Isocrates, one of the later sophists, tion for citizenship. As Hunt (1965) noted, the responded to Plato’s attack on rhetoric by reject- original sophists were professional teachers who ing both the empty and commercialized speech helped meet the need for rhetorical and civic of his fellow sophists and the abstract philoso- training in Athens, and the term “sophist” initially phizing of Plato and the Socratics. Rather than referred to “any man . thought to be learned” mere techné, Isocrates viewed rhetoric as a means (p. 71). Over time, however, the sophists acquired for educating students to “think and speak noble, a negative reputation as arrogant and