# Ancient Greece  URL:: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/chapter/ancient-greece/ Author:: lumenlearning.com ## AI-Generated Summary In ancient Greece, public speaking and rhetoric played a crucial role in society. Rhetoric was seen as the art of persuasion, and public speaking was a means to inform, praise, and persuade others. The rise of democracy in Greece led to the need for training in public speaking, as citizens debated laws and participated in trials. Solon and Pericles were influential figures in the development of Athenian democracy, implementing reforms that included the right for citizens to propose and oppose laws. Aristotle defined rhetoric as the faculty of discovering persuasive arguments and emphasized the importance of logical reasoning, knowledge of character, and engagement of emotions in effective public speaking. ## Highlights > **Rhetoric**, as defined by Aristotle, is the “faculty of discovering in the particular case all the available means of persuasion.”[[1]](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/chapter/ancient-greece#footnote-413-1) For the Greeks, rhetoric, or the art of public speaking, was first and foremost a means to persuade. Greek society relied on oral expression, which also included the ability to inform and give speeches of praise, known then as epideictic (to praise or blame someone) speeches. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hncyt339qeh1zgggznrnsvd9)) > The Rise of Democracy ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hnczdx4xyekfr442hra0876e)) > “Persuasion is the civilized substitute for harsh authority and ruthless force,” wrote R.T. Oliver.[[3]](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/chapter/ancient-greece/#footnote-413-3) Oliver said that the recipients of any persuasive discourse must feel free to make a choice. In a free society it is persuasion that decides rules, determines behavior,and acts as the governing agent in human physical and mental activities. In every free society individuals are continuously attempting to change the thoughts and/or actions of others. It is a fundamental concept of a free society. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hnczfcjjarm8hy69trsqwa3s)) > Rhetoric (persuasion), public speaking and democracy are inextricable. As long as there is rhetoric, and public speaking to deliver that message, there will exist democracy; and as long as there is democracy, there will exist rhetoric and public speaking. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hnczfk6rfkr1ad90r4gnqv27)) > Pericles’ democracy established the need for training in public speaking. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hnczg5pma7gksaxz22h726pt)) > Murphy and Katula stated that the Athenian citizens realized that their very future often depended on their ability to speak persuasively.[[5]](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/chapter/ancient-greece/#footnote-413-5) Public speaking was an Olympic event where the winner received an olive wreath and was paraded through his town like a hero. Thus, Athens became a city of words, a city dominated by the orator. Athens witnessed the birth of what we know today as *rhetoric*. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hnczggjgjsb3egvwms3wt7ys)) > To say that rhetoric played an important role in Greek and Roman life would be an understatement. The significance of rhetoric and **oratory** was evident in Greek and Roman education. George Kennedy[[6]](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/chapter/ancient-greece/#footnote-413-6) noted that rhetoric played the central role in ancient education. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hnczgr28dg1tsts08x3r3hfb)) > Public speaking was basic to the educational system of Isocrates (the most famous of the sophists); and it was even taught by Aristotle.”[[7]](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/chapter/ancient-greece/#footnote-413-7) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hnczgz69dkdxxzydfjtsw9gw)) > However, it is Plato, another Greek philosopher and teacher of Aristotle, and not Socrates, that we attribute the popularity of dialectical reasoning. **Dialectic** can be defined as a debate intended to resolve a conflict between two contradictory (or polar opposites), or apparently contradictory ideas or elements logically, establishing truths on both sides rather than disproving one argument. Both rhetoric and dialectic are forms of critical analysis. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hnczha0yhvy933f926x6e3h5)) > Unlike Socrates and Plato, the sophists believed that absolute truth was unknowable and perhaps nonexistent, especially in the sphere of forensics and political life, where no universal principles could be accepted. Courses of action had to be presented in persuasive fashion. Unlike the sophists, Socrates taught that truth was absolute and knowable and that a clear distinction should be made between dialectic, the question and answer method of obtaining the one correct answer, and rhetoric, which does not seem interested in the universal validity of the answer but only in its persuasiveness for the moment. Plato developed this criticism of rhetoric to such an extent that he is the most famous and most thorough-going of the enemies of rhetoric. Plato preferred the philosophical method of formal inquiry known as *dialectic*. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hnczj2rghffj6x7zbqm7e9hj)) > Aristotle wrote that rhetoric is the faculty of discovering in the particular case all the available means of persuasion. He cited four uses of rhetoric: (1) by it truth and justice maintain their natural superiority; (2) it is suited to popular audiences, since they cannot follow scientific demonstration; (3) it teaches us to see both sides of an issue, and to refute unfair arguments; and (4) it is a means of self-defense. For Aristotle, rhetoric is the process of *developing* a persuasive argument, and oratory is the process of *delivering* that argument. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hnczjw760j5w4hgvhf0kc9xe)) > Aristotle concluded that the *mastery* of the art, then, called for (1) the power of logical reasoning (logos); a knowledge of character (ethos); and a knowledge of the emotions (pathos). ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hnczkt4hm78ms0wey89a835y)) > In summary, Plato had opposed rhetoric to dialectic; Aristotle compared the two: both have to do with things which are within the field of knowledge of all men and are not part of any specialized science. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hnczm5v7n8ecg78eg2eznrhc)) > • Kennedy, G. (1963). *The Art of Persuasion in Greece*. Princeton: University Press. p. 19 [↵](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/chapter/ancient-greece/#return-footnote-413-1) > • Murphy James J. and Katula, R.A. (1995). *A Synoptic History of Classical Rhetoric*. 2nd ed. Davis: Ca. Hermagoras Press. [↵](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/chapter/ancient-greece/#return-footnote-413-2) > • Oliver, R.T. (1950). *Persuasive Speaking*. New York: Longmans, Green and Co. p.1 [↵](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/chapter/ancient-greece/#return-footnote-413-3) > • Harvey, I. (1951). *The Technique of Persuasion.* London: The Falcon Press. [↵](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/chapter/ancient-greece/#return-footnote-413-4) > • Murphy and Katula 1995 [↵](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/chapter/ancient-greece/#return-footnote-413-5) > • Kennedy, G. (1963). *The Art of Persuasion in Greece*. Princeton: University Press. [↵](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/chapter/ancient-greece/#return-footnote-413-6) > • Kennedy 1963, p. 7 [↵](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/chapter/ancient-greece/#return-footnote-413-7) > • (Book 1, p. 1) [↵](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeakingprinciples/chapter/ancient-greece/#return-footnote-413-8) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hnczmk06kmaqqwk0e1b24z2k))