Abstract This essay is an inquiry into Heraclitus' conception of logos and its importance for sophistic thought. Following G. S. Kirk, I argue that Heraclitus used logos to designate structure or ordered composition, both in language and in the physical world. Further, I propose that early sophists like Gorgias and Protagoras shared with Heraclitus a structural conception of logos. The essay proceeds by reviewing various understandings of Heraclitus and his philosophy, making the case that Heraclitus did use logos to signify structure or “ordered composition,” and by exploring the relationship between Heraclitus, read in this way, and the sophists.

Abstract Aristotle's Rhetoric leaves a number of unanswered questions, among them the nature of the relationship between verbal style and êthos, or character, as a means of persuasion. Statements throughout the Rhetoric suggest a connection between manner of expression and persuasive character, but Aristotle's ideas in this area are underdeveloped. Here we argue that Aristotle's stylistic theory, while not demonstrably inconsistent with the technical proof through character, cannot be made to conform neatly with it in most salient respects. Though Aristotle does not explicit y identify style as a means through which the speaker may convey the impression that he possesses positive intellectual or moral qualities, he does recognize a role for lexis in the expression of generic character traits and is aware that an inappropriate style will damage the speaker's credibility. Hence, attention to style is important for the presentation of a plausible êthos and, in this limited respect, style does contribute to the maintenance of persuasive character. This conclusion must be inferred from passing remarks in the Rhetoric. The absence of a more fully developed theory is curious in light of the availability of examples from the discourse of Attic logographers like Lysias, a speechwriter universally praised by later critics for his mastery of ethopoeia(character portrayal).

AbstractJohn Genung's late nineteenth century rhetoric textbooks, although founded on an eighteenth century model of Scottish composition, present an original conception of oratory. Genung's theory breaks free of the classical models and lays out the path to be followed during the development of speech studies among American rhetoricians of the early twentieth century.

Abstract This essay offers an analysis of “The Truth about the Paterson Strike,” Elizabeth Gurley Flynn's 1914 speech containing her ideas about the nature of propaganda in radical working-class movements. Flynn defines propaganda as ideological education, and her speech highlights the importance of oratory to early twentieth century radical propaganda campaigns. These ideas belie fundamental principles of contemporary propaganda studies, which define propaganda as manipulative, mass mediated persuasion to advance the interests of powerful elites and institutions, and contain oratory within the ethical art of rhetoric. The study concludes by recommending that the purview of propaganda studies be expanded to include Flynn's activities and those of other radical propagandists.

Abstract This essay grows out of a larger project, one in which I look to account theoretically for ways in which underpowered groups creatively manage limited physical resourcesfor maximum rhetoricaleffect. My assumption in that larger project is that underpowered groups - groups whose publicness must be either granted or commandeered from same more greatly pouered group (e.g., government) - suchgroups encounter and engage constraints ofpublic rhetoric in way not necessarily of concern to the overpowered. For example, the mayor of any city can, at his or her choosing, call together a press conference inside City Hall to address tbe issue of homelessness: the homeless do not possess tbat same rhetorical option. Of the three terms central to that larger project - place, kairos, and delivery - it is upon kairos that I will focus this essay. My argument here is that. while I am respectful of the literature accounting for kairos as a rhetorical concern in ancient Athens, most of that literature focuses on the etymology, philosophy, or theology of the term, Fully acknowledging that literature, I wish to add politial dimension, and propose that kairos becomes even more complex when coupled with perhaps the most Significant political development in the democratization of classical Athens: isegoria, or the right of any citizen to address the Assembly.

Abstract The orthodox liberal conception of society and politics has proven incapable in this country of sustaining a system of social relations in which individualistic and communitarian impulses are balanced, and in which personal freedoms and community controls are not seen as being mutually antagonistic. William Sullivan looks to the classical notion of citizenship for a vision of life that is simultaneously political and moral. The “classical notion” he promotes has its roots in theAthenian conception of citizenship both as aform of consciousness and as a call to duty. Thisform of consciousness grows out of an awareness that we are communal beings and that members of a community can influence the course of both civic and natural events. It ultimately embraces the ideas that social knowledge is fluid and tentative, that multiple viewpoints can claim legitimacy, and that resolutions of social conflicts are achieved through persuasion. Thus, the essential. act of citizenship is “doing rhetoric,” and its most fundamental duties are to participate in governance, to listen and respond to others, to acknowledge our own fallibility, and to advocate for our own views as we participate in civic life.

Abstract In this paper I develop a speculative reading of Gorgias's Encomium on Helen that begins from several common assumptions about the work—especially its status as a “pretext” for Gorgias's hidden purposes and its character as a sort of advertisement. Beginning from these common assumptions I propose that the Encomium is appropriately read as an allegorical representation of Athenian political life. By way of this allegory Gorgias was able to advertise his conception of persuasion despite its highly controversial political implications. I refer to Gorgias as a “barbarian” due to the fundamental incompatibility of the model of political persuasion implicit in the Encomium with democratic Athenian political culture.