The Art of Rhetoric

'If there are two definitive features of ancient Greek civilization,' writes Hugh Lawson-Tancred in his wide-ranging Introduction, 'they are articulacy and competition.' In the city-states oratorical competence was an essential asset for politicians in the Assemblies and Councils and even for ordinary citizens in the courts of law. In response, the technique of rhetoric rapidly developed, bringing virtuoso performances and a host of practical manuals for the layman. Yet if many of these were little more than collections of debaters' tricks, the hugely influential Art of Rhetoric has a far deeper purpose. It is here that Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) establishes the methods of informal reasoning, provides the first aesthetic evaluation of prose style and offers detailed observations on character and the emotions. 'Persuasiveness,' suggests Lawson-Tancred, 'becomes for the first time a systematic and even scientific exercise; it can indeed be taught, but only by a deep grasp of some of the most central features of human nature.' His fine translation makes freshly available an epoch-making work of literary criticism.

Few, if any, writers in history have made major contributions to as many fields of knowledge as Aristotle...

'If there are two definitive features of ancient Greek civilization,' writes Hugh Lawson-Tancred in his wide-ranging Introduction, 'they are articulacy and competition.' In the city-states oratorical competence was an essential asset for politicians in the Assemblies and Councils and even for ordinary citizens in the courts of law. In response, the technique of rhetoric rapidly developed, bringing virtuoso performances and a host of practical manuals for the layman. Yet if many of these were little more than collections of debaters' tricks, the hugely influential Art of Rhetoric has a far deeper purpose. It is here that Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) establishes the methods of informal reasoning, provides the first aesthetic evaluation of prose style and offers detailed observations on character and the emotions. 'Persuasiveness,' suggests Lawson-Tancred, 'becomes for the first time a systematic and even scientific exercise; it can indeed be taught, but only by a deep grasp of some of the most central features of human nature.' His fine translation makes freshly available an epoch-making work of literary criticism.

Aristotle was born at Stageira, in the dominion of the kings of Macedonia, in 384 BC. For twenty years he studied at Athens in the Academy of Plato, on whose death in 347 he left, and, some time later, became tutor of the young Alexander the Great. When Alexander succeeded to the throne of Macedonia in 335, Aristotle returned to Athens and established his school and research institute, the Lyceum, to which his great erudition attracted a large number of scholars. After Alexander's death in 323, anti-Macedonian feeling drove Aristotle out of Athens, and he fled to Chalcis in Euboea, where he died in 322. His writings, which were of extraordinary range, profoundly affected the whole course of ancient and medieval philosophy, and they are still eagerly studied and debated by philosophers today. Very many of them have survived and among the most famous are the Ethics and the Politics.