Selfish Virtue

Peter Ramus’s Arguments in Rhetoric Against Quintilian is exciting in its stance against a historically huge figure, but irresponsible in its style.  These are some of the clearest examples of insult that we have seen so far, except the insults hold no weight (for me) because Ramus has almost zero credibility.  Additionally, as Mitch mentioned, I found myself wishing for a rebuttal.  Not that it’s wrong to critique the works of the dead—I think all works have infinite room for improvement.  But Ramus seems to attack out of selfish interest instead of for the betterment of a theory.

In Quintilian’s Institute Of Oratory, Quintilian depicts an ideal orator, one that does not yet exist but is well within the possibility of existing in the future.  “The perfect orator, whom I would have, above all, to be a good man…” (389)  This is a humbling statement that asserts that Quintilian is not writing about himself, but encouraging others to reach this status of an ideal orator.  If this ideal of the orator were widespread, the world would be full of ‘good men speaking well’ who are virtuous and noble.  This seems a respectable platform to rise to but Ramus is unwilling to reach this ideal, and instead tries to hide it by urging others not to even read the works of Quintilian.  This is where Ramus’s selfish agenda comes in. 

He notes Quintilian’s ideal orator “identifies those virtuous qualities of character as justice, courage, self-control, prudence, likewise knowledge of the whole of philosophy and law, a thorough acquaintance with history, and many other attributes worthy of praise.” (683)  These are all excellent and attainable qualities, so what’s the issue?  In short, I believe the criterion is too difficult for Ramus himself to attain.  Instead of mentioning how much society could benefit from people aspiring to the virtuosity of Quintilian’s orator, he “assert[s] indeed that such a definition of an orator seems to me to be useless and stupid.” (683) What seems stupid and useless to me is someone who tries to silence someone else whose only aim was to create ideals that could possible better mankind.  Can Ramus make this claim for himself?  I think not.