john jones | courses

For as long as can be remembered rhetoric and the art of speech has been one of the most important tools an individual can poses. Dating back to the Greeks, Rhetoric has been a key to life as they lived in an oral culture. It can not be stressed enough just how important it was for the individuals of the community to understand the skills involved with persuasion and the responsibility that comes with it. In particular ethics play a key role in the use of rhetoric as addressed in James Booths article. Ethics are tremendously important; it is both the written and spoken word that influences our decisions on a day to day basis. I find it very hard to say which type of rhetoric is good vs. bad. As always in life there are situations where judgment must come in to play and it is not always easy for people to be objective and state what needs to be said. As Booth says once we start letting our personal ethics get in the way of our intention that is when it become s harder and harder to be objective. This statement true, I believe that ethics and morality are a very important part of rhetoric and should be taken into account at all times from all different perspectives. Not simply the speaker but the listener as well they play just as much of a key role. There are so many people today that are so easily influenced that without proper moral guidelines who knows what could happen, just look at Hitler, his rhetorical skills and the effects. Overall it is a difficult subject to police, there will always be debate about the use of ethics but I believe that with out ethics we would be in a great deal of trouble.