Semisensical ramblings by David W. Rick
“It is a part which, though it will be the most difficult to myself, from the necessity of examining a vast diversity of opinions, will yet perhaps afford the least pleasure to my readers, since it admits merely of a dry exposition of rules. In other parts, I have endeavored to introduce some little embellishment, […]
“Oratory is the art of enchanting the soul, and therefore he who would be an orator has to learn the differences of human souls—they are so many and of such a nature, and from them come the differences between man and man.” — Socrates in Plato, Phaedrus I have abandoned my questions for these texts, […]
“The complete and perfect orator is who can speak in public about every subject with richness of arguments and variety of tunes and images.” — Crassus, in Cicero. De Oratore. Key Terms: Disertus, Eloquens, Loci/Topoi, Inventio, Dispositio, Elocutio, Memoria, Actio Cicero’s De Oratore takes the form of a letter to his brother, describing a dialogue […]
“For all advice to do things or not to do them is concerned with happiness and with the things that make for or against it; whatever creates or increases happiness or some part of happiness, we ought to do; whatever destroys or hampers happiness, or gives rise to its opposite, we ought not to do.” […]
It is an interesting thing to approach a field of study when one’s background lies elsewhere. Though I am currently pursuing a PhD in Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English, my BA was in English Creative Writing and my MA more interdisciplinary English, emphasizing writing and literature. Thus, my exposure to classical rhetoricians has […]