Class Rethoric and Argumentation

Rhetoric’s emergence is not coinciding with its designation; discursive elaboration as a way to persuade is prior to its formulation as a specific discipline or method for elaborating discourses. A restrictive look at the activity of communicating allows, as such, to become an autonomous object of study and criticism. During this UC we will try to show how this effort to produce pleasant speeches, capturing the audience's attention, i.e., a group of people who are willing to understand what they are listening, has been done. The approach will be made from the analysis of the historical documents of Western culture. Regarding this way of communicating, distinct from others, which aims to capture the adherence of those open to it, canny expertise is needed, which we will make clear in order to allow its use in different actual contexts. The technical nature of this discursive elaboration will allow its reconstruction in current contexts.

1. Rhetoric: object and modus operandi: the Ekkl¿siast¿s case and Theogony;

2. Plato: Gorgias and the definitions of discourses;

3. Aristotle: Rhetoric, the first treatise;

4. Cicero: De Oratore and the crease of public affection;

5. Quintilian: Institutio Oratoria and the political dimension;

6. Giambattista Vico: New Science and the problem of history;

7. Marshall McLuhan: the classic Trivium: the rediscovery of rhetoric and media;

8. Eric Havelock: Muse's problem: going back to alphabet and understand the grounds;

9. Michel Foucault: the notion of parrh¿sía (the free speech) and the courage of speaking;

10. Chaïm Perelman, rhetoric and argumentation;

11)          Technical devices and rhetoric.

As a theoretical Unit, objectives and competences, are better suited into master classes as the most relevant methodology. Formulating problems, define their limits and exposition are elements that will be of regular use. Hermeneutics and heuristics will also be recurrent methods. Verification and monitoring of learned skills will be done via public discussion of arguments and problems raised in site as exercises

Aristotle (1991). The Art of rhetoric. London: Penguin Books.

Barilli, Renato (1985). Retórica. Lisboa: Presença.

Cicero (2013). El orador. Madrid: Alianza.

Richards, Jennifer (2008). Rhetoric. London: Routledge.

Kennedy, George A. (1994), A new history of classical rhetoric. Princeton, Princeton University Press.

Fuller, Steve & Collier, James (2004). Philosophy, rhetoric, and the end of knowledge. A new beginning for science and technology studies. Mahwah, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

McLuhan, Marshall (2009). The Classical Tivium. Berkeley: Ginko Press.

Pereleman, Chaïm (2007). Tratado da argumentação. Lisboa: Instituto Piaget.