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-"Hence in many places, as we have said already, irrelevant speaking is forbidden in the law-courts: in the public assembly those who have to form a judgement are themselves well able to guard against that."

Courts have rules of evidence in an attempt to curb irrelevant speaking, yet trials are still largely won or lost by which side more effectively utilizes irrelevant speaking to sway the emotions of the jury.

Politics today seem to be wholly dominated by irrelevant or vague rhetorical persuasion.

Is this inversion of Aristotle's statement due to the dumbing of our culture in general? Was Aristotle only speaking to the political climate of his day, where today we have universal suffrage? Did he correctly identify the types of persuasive speaking, but get the applications incorrect? A little bit of all three?

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