Description:
"One adept
at persuasion is like a knight skilled in battle, relying on the
strengths of his opponent and turning them into his own . . .
" These words of ancient Chinese wisdom evidence the fact
that the art of rhetoric--defined by Aristotle as "the faculty
of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion"--has
occupied the attention of the world's great thinkers since the
earliest times, both as a tool in itself and as a source of philosophical
speculation. What constitutes a good argument? Is the answer to
this question something that varies from culture to culture, across
the vast expanses of space and time? What may the ancient Chinese
and Greeks teach us about the art of effective persuasion? By
examining both theories of rhetoric and examples of argumentation
itself, by such diverse writers as Plato and Mencius, Aristotle
and Han Fei, we will explore the essence of successful argumentation,
with the aim of turning ourselves into skilled knights in the
battlefield of academia and beyond.