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Aristotle's ''Rhetoric'' (Greek: Ῥητορική; Latin: ''Ars Rhetorica''〔''Ars Rhetorica''. Edited by W. D. Ross. OCT. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1959.〕) is an ancient Greek treatise on the art of persuasion, dating from the 4th century BC. The English title varies: typically it is titled ''Rhetoric'', the ''Art of Rhetoric'', or a ''Treatise on Rhetoric''. ==Background== Aristotle is generally credited with developing the basics of the system of rhetoric that "thereafter served as its touchstone",〔Bizzell, P. and Bruce Herzberg. (2000). ''The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present.'' NY: Bedford/St. Martin's. p. 3.〕 influencing the development of rhetorical theory from ancient through modern times. The ''Rhetoric'' is regarded by most rhetoricians as "the most important single work on persuasion ever written."〔Golden, James L., Goodwin F. Berquist, William E. Coleman, Ruth Golden and J. Michael Sproule (eds.). (2007). ''The rhetoric of Western thought: From the Mediterranean world to the global setting'', 9th ed. Dubuque, IA (USA): p.67.〕 Gross and Walzer concur, indicating that, just as Alfred North Whitehead considered all Western philosophy a footnote to Plato, "all subsequent rhetorical theory is but a series of responses to issues raised" by Aristotle's ''Rhetoric''.〔Gross, Alan G. and Arthur E. Walzer. (2000). ''Rereading Aristotle's Rhetoric''. Carbondale, IL (USA): Southern Illinois University Press: p.ix. Gross and Walzer further say that "There is no comparable situation in any other discipline: No other discipline would claim that a single ancient text so usefully informs current deliberations on practice and theory."(p.x).〕 This is largely a reflection of disciplinary divisions, dating back to Peter Ramus' attacks on Aristotlean rhetoric in the late 16th century〔Murphy, John J. (1983). "Introduction, " Peter Ramus, ''Arguments in Rhetoric against Quintilian.'' C. Newlands (trans.), J. J. Murphy (ed.). DeKalb IL (USA): Univ. of Illinois Press.〕 and continuing to the present.〔Gross and Walzer, 2000, p.ix.〕 Like the other works of Aristotle that have survived from antiquity, the ''Rhetoric'' seems not to have been intended for publication, being instead a collection of his students' notes in response to his lectures. The treatise shows the development of Aristotle's thought through two different periods while he was in Athens, and illustrates Aristotle's expansion of the study of rhetoric beyond Plato's early criticism of it in the ''Gorgias'' (ca. 386 BC) as immoral, dangerous, and unworthy of serious study.〔Griswold, Charles. ("Plato on Rhetoric and Poetry" ), ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', December 22, 2003.〕〔(''Gorgias'', 465a ), Perseus Project.〕 Plato's final dialogue on rhetoric, the ''Phaedrus'' (ca.370 BC), offered a more moderate view of rhetoric, acknowledging its value in the hands of a true philosopher (the "midwife of the soul") for "winning the soul through discourse." This dialogue offered Aristotle, first a student and then a teacher at Plato's Academy, a more positive starting point for the development of rhetoric as an art worthy of systematic, scientific study. The ''Rhetoric'' was developed by Aristotle during two periods when he was in Athens, the first, from 367 to 347 BC (when he was seconded to Plato in the Academy), and the second, from 335 to 322 BC (when he was running his own school, the Lyceum) The study of rhetoric was contested in classical Greece: on the one side were the Sophists, and on the other side were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The trio saw rhetoric and poetry as tools that were too often used to manipulate others by manipulating emotion and omitting facts. They particularly accused the sophists, including Gorgias and Isocrates, of this manipulation. Plato, particularly, laid the blame for the arrest and the death of Socrates at the feet of sophistical rhetoric. In stark contrast to the emotional rhetoric and poetry of the sophists was a rhetoric grounded in philosophy and the pursuit of enlightenment. One of the most important contributions of Aristotle's approach was that he identified rhetoric as one of the three key elements—along with logic and dialectic—of philosophy. Indeed, the first line of the ''Rhetoric'' is "Rhetoric is a counterpart (''antistrophe'') of dialectic."〔Aristotle, ''Retoric'', (1.1.1 ).〕 According to Aristotle, logic is concerned with reasoning to reach scientific certainty while dialectic and rhetoric are concerned with probability and, thus, are the branches of philosophy that are best suited to human affairs. Dialectic is a tool for philosophical debate; it is a means for skilled audiences to test probable knowledge in order to learn. Conversely, rhetoric is a tool for practical debate; it is a means for persuading a general audience using probable knowledge to resolve practical issues. Dialectic and rhetoric create a partnership for a system of persuasion based on knowledge instead of upon manipulation and omission. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rhetoric (Aristotle)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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