Rhetoric in European and World Culture

This book, Rhetoric in European and World Culture, defines the position of rhetoric in the cultural and educational systems from ancient times through the present. It examines the decline of its importance in a period of rationalism and enlightenment, presents the causes of why rhetoric (reduced to a system of rhetorical tricks) came to have negative connotations, and explains why rhetoric in the 20th century was able to regain its position. It demonstrates that the prestige of rhetoric sharply falls when it is reduced to a refined method for deceiving the public, and increases when it is seen.;Introduction; History of Rhetoric -- A motionless History?; 1. The Origin of Rhetoric in Ancient Greece; THE SEARCH FOR TECHNÉ; PROTAGORAS'S AGONISTIC RHETORIC; FIRST TEACHERS; ANCIENT RHETORIC AS A MODEL OF PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION; PLATO'S UNENDING DISPUTE WITH RHETORIC; ISOCRATES'S PROGRAMME OF RHETORIC IN SERVICE OF POLITICAL CULTURE; ARISTOTLE AS ANCIENT RHETORIC'S PINNACLE; ON THE ART OF PERSUATION IN RHETORIC TO ALEXANDER; 2. Hellenistic and Roman Rhetoric; THE BIRTH OF HELLENISTIC PHILOLOGY; RHETORICAL INSTRUCTION IN THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD.