Rhetoric In Social Practice

The western rhetoric is a subject with old-line origin but always updating with fresh blood.Rhetoric originated from law courts arguments and public conference elocutions in ancientAthens. It has been showing its great charm since the very beginning of its birth. Since the 5thcentury B.C., this practical art of speech from social life has been having great impact onhuman being's social communications, culture development and progress. Like itscontemporary science philosophy and psychology, there are not only strong and richtheoretical basis for rhetoric, but also significant social value and pragmatic sense of thissubject as politic, ethics and many other modem subjects. On the basic of concluding withancient Athens' practical experience, Aristotle creatively founded the western rhetoric systems,and further emphasized rhetoric's social practical value.Whereas since 16th century, Ramus reorganized the traditional western rhetoric,eliminating the argument part with practical value and left the compositional art mainlyincluding stylistic and figure of speech. This caused the decadence of rhetoric which lastedmore than 300 years without any resume. Rhetoric we brought in at early 20th century was thepart after its partition, in that, we only have very limited cognitive view upon rhetoric: havingborrowed its constructive frame while neglected its kernel contents——the persuasive andsocial functions of rhetoric.In mid-20th century, the resume of rhetoric in America brought this ancient subject withfresh hope and abundant strong vigour. Argumentation was back to rhetoric, and it got peopleagain took the social practical sense of rhetoric into account. Nowadays, rhetoric takes animportant status in both academic fields and social culture life. And, persuasive strategies ofrhetoric are playing inevitable roles in many social life fields, including in politic, economy,culture, law and mass media and even in social communications. In times of globalization,with a never seen fast speed, our country is melting into the international society. Rhetoric isto develop at home and abroad at the pace of times to contribute its existed energy and powerin constructing a modern and harmonious society.In this tide of opening-up to the world, we should take this historic responsibility todevote our though limited power for the progress of Chinese rhetoric. This is precisely thegreat wish of this essay. Here, having rested mainly on modern rhetoric theory with a combination of samples in social life and the direction and tends of the research anddevelopment of rhetoric, the author collected amount of data to demonstrate the importanceand practical sense of rhetoric in social practice. This essay also presents that as a practicalmeans of persuasion, how rhetoric functions in various social fields. This finally aims atgetting readers of this essay a much clearer and broader view upon modern western rhetoricafter its revolution and innovation.