Simply looking up the definitions of each individual word wasn't enough for me to understand the connections that eloquence and philosophy have to rhetoric (but you can view these definitions by clicking the links in the first paragraph of this post). By using this book, I got a much clearer picture of how it all fits together.
I highly recommend reading the entry excerpts that I scanned in (Eloquence, Rhetoric and Philosophy) , but here is a brief summary of what I found: Eloquence refers to artistic expression and is one of the aims of rhetoric. Philosophy, which has as its main concern the search for ultimate truth, intertwines with rhetoric when its focus turns to applying that truth to life and decision-making.
To reiterate, the key concepts are eloquence: artistic expression and philosophy: search for truth. The very basic relationships are sort of flip-flops of one another. Rhetoric uses eloquence and philosophy uses rhetoric.
This was a fun little research adventure, and I hope it will be helpful as we move forward with our discussions of rhetoric in ancient civilizations.
If you read nothing else from this post, do at least read the second to last paragraph. It's a super-short synopsis of what I took away from my research. Let me know if you agree (or disagree!) with my interpretation of what our assigned topics mean!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree, and it's nice that they involve each other so closely. I'll admit, I didn't think the two were very much related at first, but it seems to me now that they both involve dealing with life and the questions that it throws at us.
ReplyDeleteThanks a ton, Alicia! I was having trouble understanding where we were supposed to go with the eloquence theme-I just thought it was making big speeches. It's good to know that eloquence can be expressed even in simple speech. And I agree with your interpretation!
ReplyDeleteRhetoric uses eloquence and philosophy uses rhetoric...Rhetoric uses eloquence and philosophy uses rhetoric...Rhetoric uses eloquence and philosophy uses rhetoric...I'm gonna have to repeat that a few times to drill that distinction into my brain, haha. So, A uses B and C uses A. Therefore, does B use C as well? If you could answer that for me I'd really appreciate it. Thanks, Alicia!
ReplyDeleteWow this simplifies a lot of what I researched for my civilization as far as the eloquence part goes. Thanks a bunch Alicia! It is cool to see how the two correlate, I will definitely be drawing from that connection in my next post.
ReplyDeleteDoes eloquence use philosophy? That's the question, right Marc? I don't think whether something is philosophical or not really plays into whether it is eloquent. I would say philosophy can use eloquence to express itself though...so C uses B?
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