Rhetoric Review Oct 2021

Persuasion’s Physique: Revisiting Sign-Inference in Aristotle’sRhetoric

José G. Izaguirre III

Abstract

A concept in Aristotle’s thought that is both politically and rhetorically significant for all life forms is a sign (sêmeion). Yet, scholarship has historically left underexplored how Aristotle positions the utility of a sign across human and nonhuman animal domains. Rereading his presentation of signs in the Rhetoric in light of his statements on the use of sign-inference through physiognomy in Prior Analytics elucidates how rhetoric’s interest in persuasive things makes use of a sign’s physicality. In so doing, Aristotle demonstrates how rhetoric enables political communities to grapple with an inescapable nonhuman status.

Journal
Rhetoric Review
Published
2021-10-02
DOI
10.1080/07350198.2021.1963039
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Topics
classical rhetoric rhetorical criticism argument
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