Aristotle's Rhetoric Summary

Aristotle was a philosopher and teacher of ancient Greece, who wrote about a wide range of issues and questions. In Aristotle’s Rhetoric: Book 1 Chapter 1, Aristotle claims that “it is absurd to hold that a man ought to be ashamed of being unable to defend himself with his limbs, but not of being unable to defend himself with speech and reason.” By this, Aristotle meant that a person should be far more ashamed if they are unable to defend themselves with reason rather than if they were unable to defend themselves using their bodies. This is a point of view that Aristotle and I agree on. In today’s world, logic and reasoning should be valued far more than athleticism. First, success in anything requires strategy. Even Olympians need to know

Careers based in physical prowess are far more unstable than those based in intellect. Most athletes’ biggest fear is a physical injury that effectively ends their careers. It is something that always seems to be looming over them. Anytime they compete or perform, they run the risk of being seriously injured. A person’s ability to work their body is not going to have as much of an effect on an intellectual career. Also, a successful career in athleticism is often times short lived. Once an athlete has passed their prime, it becomes increasingly more difficult to gain success in their athletic careers. However, intellectual careers often offer a person to grow in their career as they get older. In general, there are more opportunities for success in intellectual fields. There are large amounts of people who want to excel in athletic fields and only a few positions available where they will have that opportunity. Meanwhile, intellectual fields offer many different opportunities for a person. For example, while a football player has only one job at which he can succeed, maybe two if he becomes an analyst, intellectual fields such as Engineering, Biology, Education, and Journalism offer a person many different jobs they may succeed at. More importantly, reasoning and intellect have had a greater impact on our world today than athletics have. It would be absurd to say that athletes, like

Athletics do hardly anything to cultivate these qualities. They may even hinder them. Sports seem to reinforce a “us against them” or “me against them” type of mentality. The competition of athletics just creates further division between people. Athletes, especially younger athletes, tend to, of course, value their bodies more than their minds. If this occurs, that person may be more likely to become ignorant to the parts and the people of the world that they do not encounter on a day to day basis. In my experience, ignorance breads the most cruelty and hate. One could argue that racism, bigotry, and misogyny are all based in some form of ignorance. Those who value their minds just as much, if not more, than their bodies generally seem to be the ones gathering the most information about the world. To me, there seems to be some correlation between gathering this knowledge about the world around you and your compassion for people. It would be inaccurate to say that intellect causes kindness, but there may be some link between the two. The more you know about the people of the world, the more you may care about