The purpose of this paper is to utilize the points made in the writings of Greek Philosopher Plato (see: Magee, 2001: 3-10) concerning rhetoric and persuasion in a series of written communications on the topic of falling in love online. The points utilized are those discussed by Plato in the Phaedrus (see: Nehamus & Woodruff, 1997: 507-556) which consists of a dialog between Socrates and Phaedrus who has just been exposed to a good deal of 'speech-making.'
The points about rhetoric discussed in the Phaedrus center around Plato's idea that what is truly shameful is not poor or bad oration or prose but rather engaging in poor rhetoric which is defined as the art of persuasion and not truth telling. Good or effective rhetoric is said to include: using similarities that the audience can relate to, defining terms and making distinctions in an organized and coherent manner but doing so in a way that convinces the audience at the emotional level as well as the cognitive level.
Remembering that good rhetoric and truth-telling are not the same thing, the point is made that the communicator needs to have knowledge of all sides of an issue as well as understand the 'art' of communication in prose and speeches. This means knowing the purpose of prose and speech-making as well as how maximal communication can be achieved. The foregoing points are utilized in the three communications presented below.
Online Love Relationships: Personal View
Can a relationship carried out by email result in genuine love? My personal view is that yes it can and the strongest argument for this view is the fact that millions of people all over the world met each other in cyberspace, fell in love and have had lasting marriages.
Psychologists (see: Erber & Erber. 2000: 1-10) refer to 'genuine love' between two people as 'a healthy relationship;" and Richo (2002: 5-72) notes that healthy relationships have specific characteristics. These are...