T H E A R T O F P E R S U A S I O NE R I C A E F S T R ATO U DA K I S

T H E S I S 1 - J A N E P I R O N E

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HOW DID ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY SERVE AS A FOUNDATION FOR WHAT IS NATURAL TO US TODAY?

WHY DO WE THINK THE WAY WE DO TODAY?

WHERE IS THE BASIS FOR WHAT IS “NORMAL” TO US?

Q U E S T I O N S

Our first approach to thesis was exploratory. We were asked to come up with 20 concepts that could eventually be developed into ideas. My 20 ideas were broad, but eventually I narrowed it down.

One very per tinent question i have about human behavior is why we think the way we do. How do cultural norms, specifically in western culture, shape what we perceive to be true or valuable. I then star tedthinking about the concepts of truth and perception, which ultimately led me to think about philosophy.

I thought about the foundations of our beliefs. I star ted thinking about ancient philosophy, specifically greek, and realized the statements of the ancient greek philosophers have remained with us and served as a foundation for our western societal norms today.

I began researching what the philosophers analyzed and became extremely interested in their examinations of rhetoric. Rhetoric is the ar t of persuasion, and ar t that is practiced by everybody in ways that we don’t even notice. Rhetoric is a very technical ar t that represents something very conceptual. I became interested in the sub-elements of rhetoric, such as manipulation, persuasion, audience, truth, deceit, character, memory, delivery, invention, creativity, etc. Here are my explorations in this process so far.

B AC K G R O U N D

S TAT E M E N T #1I am looking into historical philosophy because I want to find out how it has affected social policy in order to understand what is normal/natural to us today.

Rhetoric is defined as the ar t of effective or persuasive speaking or writing. Today, it is commonly associated with politics. Contrary to this association, ancient Greek philosophers such as Aristotle considered it a counterpar t of both logic and politics. Philosophers like Aristotle claimed that rhetoric is not only prominent in politics, but in many other aspects of society and culture as well. However, philosophers like Plato deemed the ar t of rhetoric negative, as it is deceitful instead of truthful. It all boils down to the basic concept of “finding truth” in society and culture through communication. These philosophers studied and wrote about this thousands of years ago, but their principles have remained extremely relevant in modern Western society. Rhetoric is a tactic used in politics, economics, the legal system, ethics, education, etc. The list is endless. We are living in a society where mass media, culture, and technology have shaped the way we think and communicate. But how have the philosophies of our ancestors shaped the way we use rhetoric today? Rhetoric is an audience-based ar t, capable of shaping opinion. Propaganda and adver tising are two examples of the power of rhetoric and its effect on the public. I am looking into ancient Greek philosophers’ analysis of rhetoric and how it has formed a basis of what can be called manipulative communication, in order to understand how rhetoric is used today in adver tising, and what role designers play in this so-called deceitful ar t.

I am investigating rhetoric as it was defined by ancient Greek philosophers because I want to find out how the ar t of persuasion has affected our perception of truth in order to explore what is normal/natural to us today.

S TAT E M E N T #2

M I N D M A P S

R E S E A R C H

THE ART OF EFFECTIVE OR PERSUASIVE SPEAKING OR WRITING

THE ABIL ITY TO SEE WHAT IS POSSIBLE PERSUASIVE IN EVERY GIVEN C ASE.

A “KNACK” AND FORM OF FLATTERY

RHETORIC:

ARISTOTLE’S RHETORIC:

PLATO’S RHETORIC:

- PYTHAGORAS, SOCRATES, PLATO

FOR IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DEMONSTRATE EVEN THE TRUTH WITHOUT PERSUASION AND AGREED-UPON PREMISES .”

”

R E S E A R C H

A few key points...

- 5 Canons of rhetoric: - Invention - Arrangement - Style - Memory - Delivery

- 3 Intellectual faculties: - nous (mind) - knowledge - dianoia (thought) - ar t - doxa (opinion) - experience

- Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle - ethos (credibility, trust) - logos (consistency, logic) - pathos (emotions, imagination)

- Logical ar t with practical delivery- Different manners of delivery

- Elements of Rhetoric: - character of the speaker - emotional state of the listener - the argument itself- Speaker often evokes emotions of the audience - Rhetoric as counterpar t to logic and dialectic

Keywords (concepts to explore):- storytelling- manipulation- deceit- search of truth- perception- emotions- knowledge- persuasion- communication- tactic- audience-based- decoration- meaning- context- perception- interpretation- imagination- agenda

R E S E A R C H

AUDIENCE

SPEAKER MESSAGECONTEXT

PURPOSE

ETHOScredibility, trust

LOGOSconsistency, logic

PATHOSemotions, imagination

P R E C E D E N T S

Buckminster Fuller’s maps examined a different way of perceiving the world. Why do we perceive the world and draw maps the way we do? I am interested in the foundations of perception and how societal norms are based off most of these foundations.

P R E C E D E N T S

Daniel J. Simon’s selective attention test analyzes the mindset and focus of the audience, something I plan to fur ther test through my explorations of rhetoric.

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As a preliminary exploration, I wanted to see what personal experiences other people around had with rhetoric. I interviewed many students, asking them if they have ever convinced anyone of anything, even if it wasn’t true. All of them said yes, proving that we all have practiced rhetoric whether we realize it or not. I realized that most of the stories they told me were to either protect themselves or get them out of trouble. I then asked what was the craziest story they have ever told to get themselves out of trouble. I asked this to see what tactics they used to convince someone else of something when put under pressure. I found that most people used an emotional tactic. In other words, they often tried to create an emotional reaction out of the listener in order to get their point across. This included fake crying, pretending to be someone else, and many other methods.

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In this exploration, I wanted to see how good the students were at practicing rhetoric. They could use emotional tactics to get themselves out of trouble, so I wanted to test how they would convince me “the truth” about these ambiguous images. I showed them these images, and asked them, what was the foreground/background: the black or the white? When they answered, I asked them to convince me why they saw the image that way. I found that they were not as good at this, because it the subject matter was so ambiguous.

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Here I explored one of the elements of rhetoric: the character of the speaker. The character of the speaker plays a huge role in the ar t of persuasion because it affects the emotions of the listener. In this mini-project, I told this girl to recite the same story 6 times, each time wearing a different mask that expressed a different emotion. It was very interesting because although she told the same story, the expression on her face affected how I (the listener) interpreted the story. This exploration also consequently explored one of the 5 canons of rhetoric: memory. Each time she told the story, she remembered more and more details. This ties into perception and distor tion, 2 more underlying elements of rhetoric.

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It happens to be the perfect time to study rhetoric; during the presidential elections. During the debates, the candidates mut practice rhetoric in order to convince the pubic to vote for them. In this case specifically, meaning and context become very impor tant. As a result, I explored this significance by making a mashup of the first presidential debate. By altering the context in which they make statements, I changed the entire meaning of their statements.

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Philosophers like Plato who viewed rhetoric in a negative light, claimed that rhetoric was not based on knowledge, but on decoration. In this exploration, I used Vermeer’s painting Girl with a Pearl Earring and broken it down to its simplest form: color. Vermeer has merely arranged the colors below in a way to convince us that there is a girl with a pearl earring on the canvas. It was about stripping down the decoration and revealing the true form.

The 5x5 projects were very helpful because they helped me explore both the methodical and conceptual elements of rhetoric. Through my research, I have come to understand that rhetoric is an ar t that is not based on knowledge, hence the connotations that it is purely decorational, or empty. It is a very methodical ar t that uses specific techniques for something that is very conceptual. Through my 5x5, I wanted to see what kind of experience people have had with rhetoric as well as if they could practice it. Everyone I asked has convinced someone of something and has essentially practiced this ar t. They often used emotion to persuade their audiences, especially when they were lying. I also found, however, that the students were not very good at persuading when I asked them about the ambiguous images, even though they had them right in front of them. With the masks project I wanted to explore the character of the speaker, and how the audience is affected by the speaker. Each face evokes a different feeling and essentially, a different speech, even though the speaker is telling the same story. The presidential debate mashup is meant to emphasize context. Obama and Romney say completely different things when their words are taken out of context. Lastly, I explored the idea of decoration by taking apar t a Vermeer painting into its simplest form: colors. Each project taught me something different, but there are still many elements of rhetoric that I want to explore fur ther.

R E F L E C T I O N

S O U R C E S

"Aristotle's Rhetoric." (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). N.p., n.d. Web. <http://plato.stanford.edu/en-tries/aristotle-rhetoric/>.

Atwill, Janet. Rhetoric Reclaimed: Aristotle and the Liberal Arts Tradition. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1998. Print.

Burnet, John. Greek Philosophy: Thales to Plato. London: Macmillan, 1968. Print.

Fuller, R. Buckminster, and Anwar S. Dil. Humans in Universe. New York: Mouton, 1983. Print.

"The Internet Classics Archive | Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle." The Internet Classics Archive | Nicoma-chean Ethics by Aristotle. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.1.i.html>.

Kennedy, George A. "Later Greek Philosphy and Rhetoric." Philosophy & Rhetoric (1980): 181-97. Print.

Plato. "The Internet Classics Archive | Gorgias by Plato." The Internet Classics Archive | Gorgias by Plato. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/gorgias.html>.

"Plato on Rhetoric and Poetry." (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). N.p., n.d. Web. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-rhetoric/>.

Rossetti, Livio. "The Rhetoric of Socrates." Philosophy and Rhetoric 4th ser. 22 (1989): 225-38. JSTOR. Web. <http://http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.newschool.edu/stable/40237600?&Search=yes&searchText=socrates%27&searchText=rhetoric&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Fq0%3Dsocrates%2527%2Brhetoric%26f0%3Dti%26c1%3DAND%26q1%3D%26f1%3Dall%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26Search%3DSearch%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26la%3D%26jo%3D&prevSearch=&item=1&ttl=13&returnArticleService=showFullText&>.

Schiappa, Edward. Protagoras and Logos: A Study in Greek Philosophy and Rhetoric. Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1991. Print.

Zilioli, Ugo. Protagoras and the Challenge of Relativism: Plato's Subtlest Enemy. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Pub., 2007. Print.

T H E A R T O F P E R S U A S I O NE R I C A E F S T R ATO U DA K I S

T H E S I S 1 - J A N E P I R O N E

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