Principles of Political Rhetoric

Readings:

• Aristotle, Rhetoric, Book 1, Chs. 1–3
• Socrates’s Account of Rhetoric in Plato’s Gorgias (463a–c, 464b–466a)

Epideictic Rhetoric

• Rhetoric, 1.9
• Gorgias, Encomium of Helen (414BC)
• Gouverneur Morris, “Alexander Hamilton” (July 14, 1804)
• Frederick Douglass, “Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln” (April 14, 1876)
• Robert Kennedy, “Remarks on the Assassination of MLK” (April 4, 1968)

Judicial Rhetoric

• Rhetoric, 1.10, 1.12, 1.14
• Socrates’ Address to the Athenian Jury after His Conviction (36a–end)
• Emile Zola, “The Dreyfus Affair” (excerpts) (January 13, 1898)
• Clarence S. Darrow, “A Please for Mercy” (Leopold and Loeb case) (April 22 & 23, 1924)
• Johnnie Cochran, “Closing Argument” (Trial of O.J. Simpson) (September 27, 1995)

Deliberative Rhetoric

• Rhetoric, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8
• Demosthenes, Second Philippic (excerpts) (344–343 BC)

Discussion Questions:

1. What is Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric?
2. What is the gist of Aristotle’s critique of the “technical writers” who dealt with rhetoric before him?
3. Can you think of recent examples of deliberative rhetoric?

Readings:

On Pathos

• Aristotle, Rhetoric, 2.1–2 (on anger) & 2.8 (on pity)
• Cleon on the Fate of the Mytileneans (Thucydides, 3.36–49)

On Ethos

• Rhetoric, 2.12–17
• Richard Nixon, “Checkers” Speech (September 23, 1952)
• Barack Obama, “A More Perfect Union” (March 18, 2008)

On Logos

• Rhetoric, 1.28–19, 2.22, 2.25
• Frederick Douglass, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” (July 5, 1852)

Discussion Questions

1. How does Cleon’s speech to his fellow Athenians exemplify the use of pathos as a mode of persuasion? How well does it do so?
2. As between Nixon and Obama, who in your judgment more effectively portrayed his own character in a favorable light?

Readings

Rhetoric & Style

• Rhetoric, 3.1–2
• Mark Twain, “Die Schrecken der Deutsche Sprache” [“The Horrors of the German Language”] (November 21, 1897)
• General George S. Patton, “Speech to the Third Army” (June 5, 1944)
• Woody Allen, “My Address to Graduates” (August 10, 1979)

Rhetoric in Times of Crisis & Doubt

• Abraham Lincoln, “On the Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions” (January 27, 1838)
• Neville Chamberlain, “Munich Agreement” (September 30, 1938)
• Duff Cooper, “Speech in the House of Commons” (October 3, 1938)
• Winston Churchill, “Blood, Sweat, and Tears” (May 13, 1940)
• John F. Kennedy, “Cuban Missile Crisis Speech” (October 22, 1962)
• Jimmy Carter, “Crisis of Confidence” (July 15, 1979)
• Bill Clinton, “I did not have…” (January 26, 1998)
• Allan Bloom, “Western Civ” Address at Harvard (December 7, 1988)

Discussion Questions

1. How well does the style of Patton’s speech reflect its purpose and content?
2. As between JFK, Carter, and Clinton, who in your estimation dealt with the crisis facing him most effectively?

Readings:

• Martin Luther King, “I Have a Dream” (August 28, 1963)
• Malcolm X, “The Black Revolution” (April 8, 1964)
• Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” (1851)
• Susan B. Anthony, “On a Woman’s Right to Vote” (1873)
• Lucy Parkman Scott, “Be Women and Do a Woman’s Work” (April 10,1895)
• Josephine Jewell Dodge, “Woman Suffrage Opposed to Women’s Rights” (November 1911)
• Gloria Steinem, “Living the Revolution” (May 31, 1970)
• Phyllis Schlafly, “What’s Wrong with Equal Rights for Women?” (January 1, 1972)
• Ambassador Samantha Power, “Commencement Address at Barnard College” (May 17,
  2015)
• Christina Hoff Sommers, “The Real Oppression That Campus Feminists Aren’t Talking About” (June 8, 2015)

Discussion Questions

1. Evaluate the arguments, and the manner of presenting of the arguments, of any of the anti-suffrage speakers.
2. Who makes the better argument: Power or Sommers—and why?

Readings:

• Special Assignment: The Corinthian/Corcyrean Debate