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The History of Public Speaking

15th - 17th Centuries CE

1st Century BCE

19th-20th Centuries

5th Century BCE

9th Century BCE:

The Renaissance

- "rebirth"

- challenging of the Church's power

- more attention to ideas of style in public speaking

- humanism: revival and rediscovery of classical style

- rationalism and intellectual freedom

- recognizing the collective human culture

- beginning of classical antiquity

- the "Homeric" age

- gradual shift from monarchy to democracy in Ancient Greece

- rise of the Roman Empire

- study of rhetoric is full curriculum of liberal arts, especially philosophy, wit and humor, appeal to listeners' emotions, and digressions

- Cicero: heavy influence on Latin style, developed five canons of rhetoric (five step process for developing a persuasive public speech) which is still used today

- oratory in Roman culture much less central to daily life but vital in government and public entertainment

- orators like Mark Twain and Charles Dickens were sources of popular entertainment

- post-WWII, the rise of the scientific method caused emphasis on a plain style of speaking, much less ornate and polished than the styles of Ancient Greece

- rhetoric developed as concentrated field of study

- first known Greek work on oratory

- Sophists: teachers of politics, philosophy, and rhetoric that were known for charging a lot of money

- Socrates and Plato criticized both Sophists and the art of rhetoric of being deceiving, preferring dialectics instead

The Middle Ages (400-1400 CE)

- little academic advancement

- power of Roman Catholic Church

450 BCE

Mesopotamia, 2300 BCE

- Akkadian empire

- earliest specific form of rhetoric

Egypt, 2000 BCE

- training in public speaking

- valued knowing when to stop speaking

0

1600 CE

850 BCE

Present Day

Early 8th Century BCE: Public speaking was a competitive event at the Olympic games in Ancient Greece.

4th Century BCE

17th-18th Century CE

1st Century CE

The 21st Century

Aristotle

- rhetoric: the “faculty of discovering the possible means of persuasion in reference to any subject," trains one to see both sides of an argument and to refute unfair arguments, promotes truth and justice

- "means of persuasion" divided into three parts:

1. logos

2. ethos

3. pathos

The Enlightenment

- combination of classical rhetoric and contemporary psychology

- rhetoric based on understanding of human nature

- scope of rhetoric broadened to fine arts including poetry, drama, gardening, music, architecture, oratory, writing, etc.

- concentration on delivery and style (speaker’s gestures, facial expressions, tone, and pronunciation)

Francis Bacon: "...the duty of rhetoric is to apply reason to imagination"

- "silver Latin" is popular trend in oratory

- Quintilian: believed that public speaking is inherently moral and that deviating from natural language and thought in favor of elaborate style created confusion

- push to return to simpler and clearer language

- reinforcement of five canons defined by Cicero:

1. discovery of arguments

2. arrangement of arguments

3. expression or style

4. memorization

5. delivery

- modification of public speaking as societies and cultures have changed

- technological advancements

- telecommunications and the mass media

Oratory: the art or practice of formal speaking in public

- another period of classical revival "Neoclassicism"

- French and American revolutions

- renewal of political rhetoric

Rhetoric: the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing

Dialectic: the art of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions; a debate intended to resolve a conflict between two contradictory ideas logically by establishing truths on both sides

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