Sober Discourse

sobriety, n.

3. Staidness, gravity, seriousness; soundness or saneness of judgement, etc. (OED)

A definition I’m currently working on/with (or maybe it’s working on me…):

Rhetoric is the dynamic (and credible, convincing, compelling) application of creative process to reason and language through which humans make things happen to achieve human goals. It is used by human agents who operate on the assumption that they can and should effect change in the world and use it to create their own (and our) place in it. (this is kind of a mash-up of Bacon, Bazerman, Burke, Aristotle, Fish, and Isocrates, among others)

As I was thinking about what rhetoric is and what it does, I was drawn back to Isocrates in Against the Sophists and his observation that sophists are “men who inculcate virtue and sobriety.” His understanding that, “the art of using letters remains fixed and unchanged, so that we continually and invariably use the same letters for the same purposes, while the reverse is true of the art of discourse.” The symbols used to represent words remain consistent; the path taken by the rhetor to arrange the words in order to create meaning is what is significant to the art of rhetoric, as well as the understanding of what is fit for the occasion. Beyond these two attributes, Isocrates also states that ability is a component of natural talent and formal training. This articulation of the structure of rhetoric by Isocrates includes the concepts of phronesis, kairos, and dunamis as essential to the process of reasoned discourse. Practical wisdom facilitates the creative art, understanding the proper occasion and the timing enhances the capacity of discourse to perform its intended function, and skillful knowledge of the rhetor grounds the discourse in valid, epistemical reason. Sound, sane judgement is what Isocrates refers to when he uses the term sobriety in reference to discourse. “Inculcating virtue and sobriety” distinguish the underpinnings of Isocrates’ view of rhetoric, and in Antidosis, he states, “discourse which is true and lawful and just is the outward image of a good and faithful soul.” Isocrates recognizes the ethical responsibility of the rhetor.

Even though the common understanding of rhetoric has been debased to a pejorative common usage of the term, my personal bias is that rhetoric can still be a powerful tool for change when we engage in and teach its thoughtful application.