The Study Of Orator’s Rhetorical And Philosophical Problems

The ‘De Oratore’ is a mature work of Cicero. He wrote it in his middle age to deal with the relations between rhetoric and philosophy, also with politics. So ‘De Oratore’ can be the key to understand Cicero’s books. This paper attempts to find out what is the ideal orator, and how could Cicero use rhetoric to connect philosophy and politics together. We’ll start with the history from Plato to Quintilian to see the evolution of Oratory. Equally important, the interrelated books of Cicero would also be interpreted.The word orator is absolutely complicated, in Cicero’s opinion, it is equivalent to politician, rhetorician and philosopher. Thus, the title of this paper also can be interpreted as ‘the study of relations in politics, rhetoric and philosophy’. As we all know, this is a essential theme in history of western thought.The first chapter of this thesis mainly introduces Cicero’s political career as an orator. We try to find out what had been mentioned in the theory of oratory by Plato, Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian. By which we could see the position of Oratory in the history of European classical thought.The second chapter starts from the perspective of thematology. We analyze the literary form of ‘De Oratore’. With the title, characters, scenes etc, we may find the similarity of Cicero and Plato. In this part, the audience could easily realize that Cicero often uses Aristotle’s theories as supplements to Plato. From the structure, we could probably be aware of the listeners that Cicero tries to speak with. And we may also find the main purpose of this book.The third chapter focus on the first volume of the text. Through the conversation with Crassus, Scaevola, Antonius, we know that Scaevola asks Crassus to explain why orator should grasp laws. Then Antonius rejects Crassus’ s view about the consistency between oratory and philosophy. Because he believes that an orator doesn’t need to be a philosopher at the same time. But Crassus sticks up for his point of view that a ideal orator should get closer to Plato.The fourth chapter interprets the second volume, in which Antonius is the keynote speaker. He describes a realistic orator for the audience, and shows how to arrange the structure of a speech. From these two volumes, we could figure out that Antonius looks like Aristotle whether Crassus is much closer to Plato. Antonius has a urge to make Crassus describe platonic orator clearly, so he uses every singer reason to dispute with Crassus in volume one. But now, Antonius comes up with an Aristotelian orator which is as the same as platonic orator in the level of philosophy.The fifth chapter aims at the third volume, in which Crassus points out that the problem of ideal orator should always attach to the conflict between philosophy and politics. Crassus believes Socrates caused the separation of oratory and philosophy. But in fact, the two disciplines are born to be connected. Last but not least, we’re told that rhetoric is the bridge for these two elements. That’s why this text is not simply a textbook for rhetoric. As Crassus takes the discussion of rhetorical skills to the level of philosophy by which we can find Plato’s philosopher-kings in his statement. The ideal orator which Crassus calls over and over is a child who is raised by Plato’s philosophy and grown up in Aristotelian politics. The young men right there accept that an ideal orator shall both learn philosophy from Plato and Aristotle.At this point, we could notice that Crassus’ s speech mainly bases on platonic philosophy. He uses rhetoric to manifest the consistency between philosophy and politics. After obtaining philosophy to nourish his soul, the ideal orator can be so close to the height of god, then he would wisely dispose political problems on earth. In the end,Antonius reveals Aristotle’s practical demands about orators as an opponent. Therefore, platonic philosophy is the key for orators to understand the conflict between philosophy and politics. But they also shouldn’t leave Aristotle behind when they’re in practice.