Rhetoric is the art of deploying possible means of persuasion, of ensuring the stronger case prevails. The objective is audience conviction, which distinguishes rhetoric from logic or analysis, which assess validity; in rhetoric there is proof but no certainty. In both rhetoric and dialectic, the line of pursuit follows premises the listener has already accepted. This grounding, as well as the interest in the superior argument, separates rhetoric from morally dubious sophistry. Aristotle conceived it as a skill of civic participation, in 3 types: deliberative (typically regarding the future, debated in assembly), judicial (the past, in adversarial courts), and epideictic (mostly the present, in setpiece speeches focused on virtue and vice). Enthymemes, the deductive, more important form of proof, demonstrate that when some thing are the case, the conclusion will be something new, a departure from the premises; in inductive proof, premises point to similar outcomes. Both premises and conclusions of enthymemes are not necessary or universally true, but are for the most part, are readily accessible. The premises should be few, the audience will supply supplements. In identifying topics and motions, Aristotle shows mechanics for buying common views bear on particular decisions.
Notable specifics:
• The practitioner must know and show what is possible or impossible, since both induction and deduction proceed from known premises
• The legislator should know his country’s past and also the systems of comparable states
• Credibility stems from practical intelligence, virtue, goodwill
• Praise displays the extent of virtue – achievements reveal disposition
• Greatness stems from opportunity, age, timing, location – conditions out of the ordinary, for a good result transcends what others are capable of in the same circumstances
• Equity is justice outside the written law
• Accidents are inexplicable action not resulting from moral flaws; mistakes are explicable; crime is explicable and immoral
• We want to be friends with rivals for the sharing of common interests – what is the best way to proceed
• Enthymemes comprise probability, example, evidence, sign (indication)
• Demonstrative enthymemes infer accepted conclusions, refutative enthymemes demonstrate something that is not accepted
• Maxims are useful for enthymemes but there are several kinds and so should be carefully chosen
• State the case, then supply the proof. Argument is proof, language, arrangement
• Argument is refuted by counterargument or insurmountable objection
• Metaphors are most effective when sensible but not obvious
• Amplification omits connectives – the cascade creates momentum