Aristotle's Rhetoric against Rhetoric: Unitarian Reading and Esoteric Hermeneutics

Abstract

The printers' devices appearing on the front cover of AJP have been selected from among the ones especially created in stained glass for the Hutzler Undergraduate Reading Room on the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University. They represent the devices by the sons of Aldus Manutius (Spring), Robert Estienne (Summer), Joannes Frobenius (Fall), and Christopher Plantin (Winter).

Negotiation and Aristotle'sRhetoric: Truth over interests?

“…Aristotle's Rhetoric goes a step beyond the utilitarian approach that permeates negotiation theory, putting emphasis on the argument from truth, and the moral end that rhetoric serves (Patsioti, 2003;Poster, 1997;Rorty, 1992;Wörner, 1990). For in Aristotle's philosophy, ''one ought not to persuade people to do what is wrong'' (Rhet.…”

“…In essence, Aristotle believes in the natural prevalence of the truth, which dictates that we are naturally prone to be persuaded of the truth (Burnyeat, 1996;Engberg-Pedersen, 1996;Wardy, 1996). On the whole, Aristotle was strongly interested in serving or discovering the truth of the case (''Wahrheitsfindung,'' or ''conquest of truth,'' according to Wörner, 1990), and not in promoting the ''old,'' unethical kind of rhetoric that he manifestly disliked (Poster, 1997). This Aristotelian conviction runs, above all, against the relativistic belief of Protagoras, according to which ''man is the measure of all things'' (Plato, trans.…”