Remer – Rhetoric as a Balancing of Ends: Cicero and Machiavelli

Citation: Remer, Gary. “Rhetoric as a Balancing of Ends: Cicero and Machiavelli.” Philosophy & Rhetoric 42.1 (2009): 1-28. Print. Abstract: The author compares and contrasts the role of rhetoric in the political philosophies of Cicero and Niccolo Machiavelli. The moral character of glory and a commitment to the good and beneficial in the politics of Cicero are analyzed. The author suggests that Machiavelli is aware that citizens desire... Read More

Selections from Quintilian’s Institutes of Oratory

Quintilian – Selections from Institutes of Oratory Despite existing in the Imperial era, Quintillian’s rhetoric did serve a civic purpose – especially as used in forensic and epideictic oratory. Instruction in rhetoric – for Q. – is the art of speaking “well” – meaning both effectively and virtuously.  This is also known as the “strong” defense of rhetoric wherein truths are defined by the social theatres in which rhetoric is... Read More

Cicero – De Oratore – Book I

Cicero – De Oratore Book I: The question of ‘When does rhetoric operate at it’s “highest” is directly engaged by C. at the beginning of this dialogue – He is writing a treatise on oratory and rhetoric at a time of intense political strife just before the dawn of Empire. C. notes that it is interesting that despite the fact that rhetoric is by classical definition a public art, there is little proof of remarkable orators through the ages... Read More

Ettlich – Theories of Invention in Late 19th Century American Rhetoric

Ettlich, Ernest Earl.  “Theories of Invention in Late Nineteenth Century American Rhetoric.”  Western Speech Journal 30 (1966):  233-241. E. notes that the topic of rhetorical invention has long been problematic/contested.  E. observes that Ramus’ revision of the liberal arts curriculum during the 1500s was the most serious challenge to rhetorical invention (classically conceived) before the 19th century.  Ramus assumed that invention... Read More

Rhetorica ad Herennium

Pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herenium (paginations are from the Harry Caplan/Harvard UP edition 1964). The text dates from sometime in the 90s BCE.  The piece is one of the first to explain a Latin system of style; further, it was also responsible for the codification of argument into a standard format consisting of exordium (like the ‘hook’ – this section of the argument grabs the writers attention and connects them to a specific topic),... Read More