Aristotle

Transitioning towards Aristotle was a relief as a reader and as a thinker. I understood most of Plato's ideas, and his theory surrounding absolute truth, but Aristotle's ideas are considerably more accessible within his writings.  Bizzell and Herzberg’s introduction is part of what makes Aristotle so digestible: 'Aristotle defines rhetoric as the art of discovering the means of persuasion available for any occasion'(30) While we've been given a handful of useful, applicable definitions for rhetoric, Aristotle's resonates most with where we are as entry level rhetors. In Rhetoric, Aristotle gives his own definition: 'Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion'(181). Bizzell and Herzberg do a great job of modernizing Aristotle's definition.  Something that really stuck out as a reader, both in Rhetoric and in  Bizzell and Herzberg’s introduction, was the collective emphasis on organization and audience interpretation. Begining in the introduction, the authors touch on the importance of the audience: 'The rhetor should also consider his audience, in terms of both their particular cultural predilections and their individual emotions, which are conditioned by age and social class'(31) This quote draws on Aristotle's own rhetorical strategy. While this is  Bizzell and Herzberg’s language, Aristotle employed his rhetorical strategy by knowing and interpreting his audience.