Rhetoric and the Logic of Persuasion

“Don’t ever diminish the power of words. Words move hearts and hearts move limbs.”

Hamza Yusuf

Rhetoric, in its simplest form, is pertained to the art of persuasive speaking. It is basically a skill used by man to get what he wants through a potentially manipulative speech. Lloyd F. Bitzer stresses that not all persuasive discourse can be discerned as rhetorical, but rhetoric is always persuasive by nature.  He also highlighted the ground of rhetorical activity – rhetorical situation. Rhetorical situation is defined as “a complex of persons, events, objects, and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant modification of the exigence.” Meaning, rhetoric is not one simple, general concept. It does not apply when any person at any situation is being persuaded.

Rhetoric serves a practical purpose and is meant to produce action. Before we can conclude that a certain situation is rhetoric, Bitzer specified three constituents of a rhetorical situation: exigence, the audience, and the constraints. An exigence is a state of urgency which needs to be addressed immediately as it is a form of deficiency. In this case, an exigence is open to modification and thus it requires human intervention. An exigence is rhetorical when it is capable of positive modification and when positive modification requires discourse or can be assisted by discourse. In a rhetorical situation, it is the exigence which determines and controls the function of the rhetor and the audience. The second constituent is the audience. It always follows that rhetoric requires an audience, since they are the ones being targeted by the speech and the possibility of change is null without the contribution of the audience. A rhetorical audience consists only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change. Lastly, every rhetorical situation contains constraints which influence the rhetor and can be brought to bear upon the audience. Constraints are parts of the situation because they drive the minds of the audience to act upon the exigence. Standard sources of constraint include beliefs, attitudes, documents, facts, traditions, images, interests, motives and the like.
In order for a situation to be considered rhetorical, it must have (1) an exigence which lends itself to modification through discourse; (2) an audience capable of being influenced by the discourse and of being mediators of change; and (3) a set of constraints that limit the decisions and actions of the audience in modifying the exigence.
 

In order for a situation to be considered rhetorical, it must have (1) an exigence which lends itself to modification through discourse; (2) an audience capable of being influenced by the discourse and of being mediators of change; and (3) a set of constraints that limit the decisions and actions of the audience in modifying the exigence.

The different aspects of a rhetorical situation:

1. Rhetorical discourse is called into existence by situation; the situation which the rhetor perceives amounts to an. invitation to create and present discourse. A speech will be rhetorical when it is a response to the kind of situation which is rhetorical.
2. It invites a fitting response, a response that fits the situation.
3. The situation must somehow prescribe the response which fits. A situation which is strong and clear dictates the purpose, theme, matter, and style of the response.
4. The situation is objective, publicly observable, and historic means that it is real or genuine — that our critical examination will certify its existence. The rhetorical situation as real is to be distinguished also from a fictive rhetorical situation.
5. Rhetorical situations exhibit structures which are simple or complex, and more or less organized. Situations may become weakened in structure due to complexity or disconnectedness.
6. Rhetorical situations come into existence, then either mature or decay or mature and persist — conceivably some persist indefinitely. Every rhetorical situation in principle evolves to a propitious moment for the fitting rhetorical response.