Channels, Fall 2016

Channels • 2016 • Volume 1 • Number 1 Page 87 Although Aristotle does not separate rhetoric from ethics, he does not codify an ethical treatise. He gives enough information in his works to say that rhetoric is not ethically neutral, but he does not develop the matter in detail (Rapp and Wagner 2013). Perhaps the most important ethical concept that Aristotle describes is that rhetoric is a social practice that should better the community (Katz 2004). He considers rhetoric a skill and requires that those who use it share some ethical responsibility for how they employ their practice (Sullivan 1989). Rorty (1996) notes that deliberative rhetoric “most clearly reveals the primary importance of truth as it functions within the craft of rhetoric itself” (6) since orators must convince their audiences that what they argue will actually happen in order to maintain their ethos . Consequently, although Aristotle may not have clearly defined ethical boundaries for rhetoric, he notes that orators cannot advance truth and justice if they manipulate their audiences. He holds them responsible for both what and how they communicate. The Audience’s Responsibility Just as orators have an ethical responsibility to advance truth and justice, so the audience plays a key role in the practice of rhetoric. According to Aristotle, the orator and audience share a feedback loop. The orator enters into public discourse and articulates a topic, and the audience works to “uncover, assess, and resolve shared problems” (Goodnight 1999, 251). As audience members deliberate, they test what the orator has argued and attempt to discover what is true (Kallendorf and Kallendorf 1989; Kennedy 1991,). Johnstone (1980) describes how audiences evaluate rhetoric, saying: The more a proposition can withstand the scrutiny of other minds, the more likely it is to be true; and, conversely, an inadequate articulation of what we believe to be true and just undermines its claim on our belief. (quoted in Kallendorf and Kallendorf 1989, 60) Aristotle asserts that since orators should easily prove what is true, audiences can decide whether orators have discussed topics fairly. Figure 1 illustrates how orators and audiences communicate with one another in a feedback loop. In the Aristotelian paradigm, audience members become judges who actively evaluate rhetoric. Figure 1. In the Aristotelian feedback loop, orators receive immediate feedback.