ENLIGHTENMENT RHETORIC

(based on  student presentations)

By

Charles Allen

_________________________________

The Enlightenment was a period in European history that occurred from the 17th through the eighteenth century that was marked by scientific, political as philosophical revolutions.  As these revolutions altered established notions regarding the physical world, human nature, society, and knowledge and truth, respective persons in the fields of science, philosophy, and politics began to institute new ideas as the scientific method surfaced by scientists, closer attention was paid to psychological processes of reflection and perception, and democracy became the natural form of organization.  Subsequently, language, communication and rhetoric experienced changes in the way in which rhetoric was understood and accepted.

The philosophical and scientific revolutions which occurred affected the conception of logic as logic was considered to be the discipline which sought truth and this was supported by the Ramistic doctrines that dominated rhetoric which particularly affected style and delivery as it argued that invention and arrangement were really concerned with logic.  In the sciences, inductive reasoning substituted for deductive logic and a development for a standard of inquiry came into play.  As the Ramistic doctrine came into play, the Ciceronian conception of rhetoric which included all five canons, invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery found its way back to serving as the foundation of rhetorical study and remained in this position through the period of the Enlightenment.

At the beginning of the Enlightenment, Francis Bacon had an insightful influence on rhetoric as his theory of psychology divided the mind into productive and receptive operations which he specifically identified as faculties which allowed focus to be on the appealing of these faculties in order to encourage the act of persuasion.  What followed was the elocution movement which targeted its efforts on accurate and powerful delivery and correct pronunciation in a period which was enthralled in correctness.  This influence later was credited with analyzing the nonverbal appeals to the emotions.

Although Rene Descartes would indefinitely highlight the thoughts of Bacon, it was Bacon who argued that rhetoric applies reason to the imagination to move the will.  He believed that reasoning was not enough to achieve persuasion, but that people had to be taught or moved through action and did not abandon altogether the use of harsh words for the rhetoric of tropes and figures.  Conclusively, Francis Bacon disavowed the art of eloquence.  Bacon’s strength allowed him to draw a distinction between investigation, which is the job of logic and invention as he — like the neo-Ciceronians – persistently guarded classical rhetoric from Ramistic assault through the restoration of invention to rhetoric.  Descartes, in accordance with Bacon’s efforts, elevated syllogism and the usual places into the spectrum of rhetoric as he defined the investigative method as a process of building on self-evident truths by careful addition as a builder, sequential addition as a scientist, and the search for casual connection as a social scientist.

Even as the political, philosophical, and scientific revolutions occurred, the genres of poetry, history, and literary criticism (belles letters) became associated with traditional rhetoric.  During this period, critics began to see literature as purposeful, poetry as perfectly connected with persuasion, and psychology and human nature as confirmation of the idea that imagination and reasoning were essential mental faculties.  It must not be forgotten however, that traditional rhetoric experienced an attack by proponents of the new science who believed that rhetoric was ornamented by vivid language rather than plain language.  In order to come to some compromise, members of this period in rhetoric began to see a fomentation in the language of preeminent religious and literary leaders as they began to use perspicuity (clarity) in discussions.

As the transition was made into Eighteenth Century Rhetoric, the relationship between language and knowledge would become a major concern as semantics, epistemology, and semantics would arise.  Innumerable definitions regarding philosophy would emerge as Giambattista Vico, Destutt de Tracy and Joseph Priestly would contribute greatly to the rules of language as a sub-component.  Uniformity would become a priority and order would inevitably become the wave of the future as Scottish clergyman and academic George Campbell would institute thoughts to understand the movement of the human mind.  This would only be complemented by Hugh Blair’s Epistemology and Bell Lettres.  Education would soar to new heights as women were afforded the opportunity to learn and the great ides of the Enlightenment, empiricism, rationalism, and psychology found a residence in rhetoric and this period would later be ascribed the period in which rules were formulated for natural composition, speech, and for judging works.