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Aristotle and Kenneth Burke on Rhetoric

This study will compare and contrast the ideas of Aristotle and Kenneth Burke on rhetoric. The study will argue that Aristotle is determined arrive at a rhetoric which is based on reason and which yields an ideal portrait of the art, whereas Burke, while he deeply appreciates Aristotle, does not believe that such an ideal can be found, although he has not given up the search.

To Aristotle, language and the use of language in effective speech can bring human beings nearer and nearer their higher purpose, which is happiness as that ideal, but for Burke words and their use are much more problematic. Words for Burke are much more mysterious and playful entities than for Aristotle. For Aristotle, the broad class of the audience is what is foremost, while with Burke the reader suspects that Burke is enjoying himself far too much in his search to truly expect to arrive at the kind of full-scale rhetorical scheme which Aristotle seeks.

As Richard McKeon writes in his Introduction to Aristotle's Rhetoric,

Rhetoric is closely allied to logic, for it is the counterpart of dialectic, in Aristotle's analysis. . . It has a moral and political dimension, and the Sophists, as Aristotle views their practices, confused it with the art of politics. . . . It is finally a verbal art. . . . (Aristotle 620).

Aristotle believes that the art of rhetoric is an art of persuasion which is itself based on reason. However, the reason upon which it is based is the reason of the rhetorician, not the necessarily the audience which is being persuaded. The rhetorician analyzes the audience and his message and decides the best approach to take in persuading that audience to accept the message:

Aristotle emphasized the consideration of arguments, which are the form and essence of persuasion. . . . There are three modes of persuasion available to a speaker: the use of his character to make his speech credible, the excitation of desired emotions in t...

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Aristotle and Kenneth Burke on Rhetoric. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 23:34, March 18, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1707307.html