How to win an argument with Cicero
Part XIV of the Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series
[Based on How to Win an Argument: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Persuasion, by Cicero, translated by James M. May. Full book series here.]
Rhetoric, these days, has a fairly bad reputation. “Rhetorical” is not an adjective typically used in a complimentary fashion. Indeed, I know a number of colleagues, especially in the sciences, who recoil in horror at the suggestion that they should improve their rhetorical skills.
And yet, “rhetorical” simply means eloquently expressed (originally from the Greek rhētorikos), and why would anyone object to expressing themselves eloquently?
Part of the problem is that rhetoric is closely associated with sophistry, and the latter — thanks to the somewhat unfair treatment by Plato — is forever engrained in common consciousness as a bad thing. After all, the Sophists were the intellectual ancestors of modern lawyers and post-modern bullshitters.
Unwittingly, Aristotle didn’t help either. He famously wrote that there are three components to a good (meaning persuasive) argument:
Logos: getting one’s facts and reasoning straight;
Ethos: convincing the audience of the goodness of one’s credentials;