| Aristotle's writings contain an interesting point of inquiry regarding the naturalness of man, for, within them there does not seem to be a moving cause that directs human life "always or for the most part" to the human end, eudaimonia. Inherent motive causes to ends, however, are the defining characteristic of natural kinds as such. A resolution to this enigma is presented in this dissertation to be Aristotle's understanding of persuasion. Persuasion is, in a certain sense, a link between Aristotle's natural works and his ethical works, for it folds the latter into the the former without removing any of the distinctive features of human life.;The relationship here is subtle, and it is explored in this dissertation in the following way:;Chapter 1 considers the state of the question and the various Aristotelian texts that play significant roles in the inquiry. Most importantly it presents the interwoven nature of the Aristotelian themes that provide justification for the inquiry outlined in the first paragraph above.;Chapter 2 distinguishes two kinds of speech, dialectic and rhetoric, on the grounds of the motive force carried in persuasion and rhetoric. In particular we note that, whereas dialectical speech clarifies knowledge in its listeners, rhetorical speech causes good action in its listeners.;Chapter 3 turns to persuasion and deliberation in Aristotle's works as having the same definition, and decouples the idea that actions that follow good deliberation are only possible for the phronimos. In this chapter we especially focus on the possibility for a speaker to cause other people to act in a way that retains responsibility for the one who acts.;Chapter 4 presents the ontological need for the action that is caused by persuasion to be ordered to the same end as the political life, the good life. In this chapter we defend the thesis that both politics and rhetoric are, by their nature, ordered to "always or for the most part" causing people to do good.;Chapter 5 concludes by presenting the possibility that the kind of causation found in persuasion and realized through speech could extend beyond the moral life and into the intellectual life as well; this would suggest that speech as such is the moving cause of man's perfection. |
