Rhetoric

Abstract

the term ‘rhetoric’ first came into use in Greece in the fourth century BC to mean the art of public speaker, a skill needed for effective participation in the legal and legislative functions of democracy. Study of rhetoric became the cornerstone of formal education in Greece and Rome and one of the three parts of the initial stage of the liveral arts in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Reactions against rhetoric as deceitful or empty verbosity are as old as Plato, though Aristotle and later teachers of rhetoric regarded it as a neutral art, capable of being used for good or for ill. Rhetoric began to lose its dominant role in secondary and higher education in the nineteenth century, under the influence of Romanticism and the increased interest in the sciences. In the twentieth century, the study of rhetoric has enjoyed a revival under a variety of linguistic, philosophical, and social influences. Scholars have also widened the scope of study with attention tothe rhetoric of women, the rhetoric of science, and rhetorical traditions found outside the West.