Just Rhetoric

Just Rhetoric?

This website has been designed to serve two purposes:

1. To provide clear explanations and useful academic resources for students of rhetoric and the general public.

2. To help dispel  popular (mis)conceptions of rhetoric as little more than flim-flam and flattery.

To get things started, on this first page you will find a few examples which illustrate how the word "rhetoric' is often (mis)used in popular discourse.

If, after reviewing these examples, you would like to understand why this popular view of rhetoric is misleading, please see the passage at the bottom of this page from the Italian rhetorician Ernesto Grassi's work Philosophy and Rhetoric.

 "Nancy Pelosi said they're going to stick to the highest ethical standards.  Obama has said he would; Clinton said he would.  It's just rhetoric. It's just campaign rhetoric.  We know they don't really mean it.  Just like don't really mean much of what they say during the campaign.  It's just breathtaking to watch this."

Rush Limbaugh, January, 2009

"Well, let me tell you something ... I know the toll of this war and what I know is that what our troops deserve is not just rhetoric. They deserve a new plan."

Barack Obama, May, 2007

"They want somebody who's going to give them solutions, not just rhetoric."

Hillary Clinton (explaining why she won the Nevada presidential primary), January, 2008

"These people have records, not just rhetoric."

Ralph Nader (expressing his admiration for presidential candidates Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich), February, 2007

"The man that brought the wall down... how many people he freed through that show of force. He didn't do it alone. He would be the first one to say so. In fact, he would deny it. He would put somebody else far ahead of him in terms of having created that freedom. But when you walk through those streets today and you talk to those people and in all of those countries, they know the force of President Ronald Reagan and they know when he said, `Gorbachev, you tear this wall down' that that was not just rhetoric. That wall came down."

Senator Paul Coverdell (Georgia), January, 1998

"There are real opportunities. Republican governors across the country have the responsibility for leading their states day by day. It's not just talk. It's not just rhetoric. We can actually show with our actions conservative principles work."

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (commenting on GOP opportunities following the election of Barack Obama), November, 2008

"Words, of course, are just rhetoric unless backed by action. But President Obama at least sees ahead a fresh path, one that once again aligns the nation's innate strengths with its ideals."

The Toledo Blade, January, 2009 (editorial response to President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address)

"I was impressed by the speech. It was motivating. Inspiring. Not just rhetoric but from deep within his soul. But it was a little warm in there, wasn't it?"

Clarissa Poole, California state office worker, August, 2009 (after attending a Democrtic Party rally near Sacramento at which Barack Obama was the featured speaker)

 Plato and AristotlePrime Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher President Barack ObamaHermes; Greek god of messages, literature, wit, commerce, and oratory

What is Rhetoric?

Rhetoric is an ancient discipline concerned with the study of human discourse, and those who study it are interested in all aspects of linguistic persuasion... including, but certainly not limited to, grandiose oratory. However, as the quotations listed above suggest, in contemporary usage the word "rhetoric" is often taken to mean just that: public speech that is insubstantial, insincere, or even deceptive.

This site provides several resources for those interested in moving beyond superficial understandings in order to learn more about rhetoric and about the wide range of topics included in contemporary rhetoric studies. To that end, the site includes: a list of academic definitions; lists of important journals and books; and links to rhetoric related websites.

To get things started, Ernesto Grassi has provided this useful, three part explanation of how rhetoric fits in with other types of human thought and communication:

To sum up, we are forced to distinguish between three kinds of
speech: (1) The external, "rhetorical speech," in the common meaning
of this expression, which only refers to images because they
affect the passions. But since these images do not stem from insight,
they remain an object of opinion. This is the case of the purely
emotive, false speech; "rhetoric" in the usual negative sense. (2) The
speech which arises exclusively from a rational proceeding. It is true
that this is of a demonstrative character but it cannot have a
rhetorical effect, because purely rational arguments do not attain to
the passions, i.e., "theoretical" speech in the usual sense. (3) The
true rhetorical speech. This springs from the archai, non-deducible.
moving, and indicative, due to its original images. The original
speech is that of the wise man [sic], of the sophos who is not only
episthetai but the man [sic] who with insight leads, guides, and attracts.

Philosophy and Rhetoric, 1969, p. 214.