Essay II: Long term cultural effects of the printing press

Essay II                                                                                               Alexandria Suhadolnik

Rhetoric                                                                                              October 18, 2011

Printing Press: Its Long-Term Cultural Effects

                The art of rhetoric becoming more widespread through written language can be attributed to Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1440. Without the printing press, the world wouldn’t have undergone cultural changes made possible by improved communication through written word. Being able to take manuscripts and mass-produce them into print was not the only effect of the Gutenberg’s printing press. Its effects radically changed the cultures of the western world. Cultural effects due to the printing press included the spread of knowledge, religious reformation, and nationalism. The printing press acted like a throttle, accelerating the spread of rhetoric, giving it a new audience that no longer depended primarily on oral speeches. Value was placed on print and its ability to permeate efficiently and effectively

            Since its appearance, the effects of the printing press have been evaluated by many intellectuals. One of its critics included Elizabeth Eisentein, an author and American historian of the French Revolution. Eisentein was a prominent assessor and critic of the press’s effects on culture. She published books including, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. Her book analyzed the effects of the printing press on technology and thus on cultural change in Europe. An article analyzing the works of Eisentein stated that her book argues, “print has been recognized as the transformative force in and on history: the history of ideas, religion, and politics” (Sharpe 245). The article elaborates that Eisentein described how the printing press indirectly affected culture, but rather the changes and improvement in technology had direct long

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term effects. Eisentein analyzed the long term effects of the printing press and how it fostered the change in western culture over time. Her book differs from the works of other critiques on the

printing press, because it focuses more on long-term indirect effects of the printing press rather than the direct effects that arose immediately after its invention. Eisentein places a large importance on new immergences of technology on the constant changing world. She argues that technology dramatically effects culture in both positive and negative ways. Her books give analyzing the effects of the printing press a new lens to investigate other important aspects of change that weren’t limited to obvious byproducts like the ability to copy ancient manuscripts.

            The printing press played a significant role in the spread of knowledge. It allowed historic manuscripts and modern articles to be multiplied quickly using a machine. Initially, the rise in literacy became prominent; it was then followed by the spread of knowledge. An article states, “Initially, literate Europeans directed their efforts toward recovering past wisdom” (Rosalto 513). People placed importance on works of ancient intellectuals and rhetors. They were adamant about getting the historical works copied to preserve them and spread them and educate a new audience. The printing press did have negative consequences. Some of the historic manuscripts were copied with errors. Some print contained errors as well as truth. Eisentein addressed this problem in her book by explaining that the information being printed had not yet been sorted out. An article analyzing the works of Eisentein stated, “putting the written word into print certainly facilitated the spread of knowledge. But more critical than the diffusion of single texts was the fact that individual scholars had more works available to them than their predecessors” (Rosalto 510). After much of the classical works were printed and made more

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accessible, modern scholars of that time were able to access the older information, change it, and add their own information to it, hence the rise of independent thought. Rhetors, for example, were able to study the works of ancient rhetors, analyze their thoughts, and either argue or add to

the classical works. Before, people relied on the works of classical intellectuals to be educated. New literature changed the curriculum of education and gave rise to independent thought. The ability to spread new ideas quickly through print, gave people an education that included both historical and modern ideas, making them more rounded and independent thinking individuals. Currently, students are able to study the works of ancient rhetors that may not have been possible without their preservation in the 16^th century. For example, students are able to study the rhetoric ideas of Aristotle and Socrates. Being educated using ancient as well as modern material gives students a better idea of history they may not of had if the curriculum lacked the wide range of text.

            Change in religion during the 16^th century, also known as the Protestant Reformation, was caused by written rhetoric and its accessibility made possible by the printing press. Before the reformation, the Catholic Church and its leaders had control over European religious thought. People relied on the catholic religious leaders to educate them about biblical ideas, how to live a just life, and what they should be contributing to the church. Religious thought changed dramatically with the new value placed on independent thought. Independent thinkers, including Martin Luther, utilized the ability to print and changed the religious views of many people around him. On October 31, 1515, during the attempt to reform the Catholic Church, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church. Martin Luther was concerned with the actions of the pope and church, the idea of indulgences, and many other acts committed by the

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church and its leaders. His oral rhetoric used in his speeches was heard by a number of people, but his written pamphlets distributed to a greater geographic area made his ideas more well-known and affective. Luther used the ability to print mass amounts to his advantage. His

pamphlets were spread through Europe to permeate his protestant beliefs. Luther also made changes to texts of the traditional bible and discounted parts of the Old Testament. He gained many followers and his lack of satisfaction toward the Catholic Church was contagious. In her book, Elizabeth Eisentein described the reformation as the power of the press. The ability to spread information gave independent thinkers like Martin Luther, a larger and more diversified audience than if he were only to spread his rhetoric through speeches. Religion and Christianity was and continues to impact the culture of the western world. According to a Catholic education website, a recent study showed that about 33% of the world is Christian and a Christian statistics site says that 30% of Christians are Protestant. Therefore, a large number of people continue to adhere to the teachings of Martin Luther. Considering the great influence the bible and its teachings have on its audience, Luther’s revised bible left a long lasting legacy, affecting the people of his time and continues to influence protestant religions to this day. The ability to spread written rhetoric gave power to Martin Luther that continues to affect religious culture almost 500 years after he posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Catholic church.

            The printing press gave a rise to nationalism that hadn’t been as pronounced. One of the effects of the printing press was that language, spelling, grammar, and syntax became more consistent. The consistency of language gave rise to different languages for different regions resulting in nationalism for one’s own culture. The ability to spread ideas through print ushered in independent thinking. The spread of independent thinking and nationalism made cultures more

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consistent with its members having more understanding of the values and norms of their societies. Another effect of the printing press that gave rise to nationalism was the ability to draw lines to create borders around the different regions of Europe. With the ability to make borders and make them known through written communication, members of each region gained a sense of nationalism for the region that inhabited. There was less dependence on leader’s oral rhetoric concerning devotion to their homeland. Written rhetoric had the ability to educate a larger audience making geographic location of its listeners less of an issue. Written language that could be spread quickly, brought people in different areas together giving them a sense patriotism that hadn’t been as rampant before the effects of the printing press.

            The invention of the printing press had short and long term effects. It made the availability of written rhetoric, including independent thought more accessible and wide spread. Before the ability to distribute written rhetoric effectively and efficiently through pamphlets, newspapers, books, and other literature, people relied on oral rhetoric to learn about history and gain perspective on current events. With the availability of new print technology, rhetors were able to spread their knowledge, thoughts on religion, and nationalism easily and quickly. The power of written language gave way to new thought that would continue to shape the minds of its audience and change the culture of the western world.

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Works Cited

Rosalto, Renato. “The Cultural Impact of Written Word: A Review Article.” Comparative

            Studies in Society and History 23.3 (1981): 513. JSTOR.

Sharpe, Kevin. “Print, Polemics, and Politics in Seventeenth-Century England.” Journal of

            British Studies 14.2 (2002): 245. JSTOR.

“Statistics on Religion in America.” The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The Pew

            Research Center, 2010. Web. 26 Oct 2011. < http://religions.pewforum.org/reports>.

Weigel, George. “World Religions by the Numbers.” Catholic Education Resource Center. 2002.

            Web. 26 October 2011. < http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/facts/fm0010.html>.

Chapter 9: Arrangement

When begining this chapter, I found the different opinions about arrangement when comparing ancient and modern rhetors to be interesting.

Ancient rhetors weren't very concerned with arrangement. Rather, they were more concerned with determining what kind of audience they had to decide how to deliver their argument/speech. They ancient rhetors were concerned with the context, or the rhetorical situation.

Sophists had 4 parts of arrangement: "prooemium (intro), narration (statement of the issue), proof, and conclusion" (294).

Aristotle only thought there were 2 parts necessary: "a statement of the case and proof" (294).

Cicero believed in 6 parts: "exordium (intro), narratio (statement of issue), partitio (division of the issue into parts), confirmatio (where strongest arguments are made), refutatio, and peroratio (conclusion)" (294).

In more modern times, we are very concerened with arrangement. Generally, a modern speech has an intro, body, and conclusion.

Exordium- Introduction. Rhetor establishes an ethos. Cicero argues that it should be "dignified and serious". There are different kids of cases that require different kinds of exordiums.

Topics for making Audience Attentive and Receptive:
Attentive: 1) show importance of issue 2) show how issue affects audience 3) show how issue affects everyone 4) show how issue affects general good of community.

Receptive: 1) strengthen your ethos 2) weaken ethos of those who oppose rhetor 3) show respect for audience 4) praise issue or position while denigrating position of opponents

Chapter 8: Extrinsic Proofs + RT: Margret Fell & Thomas Wilson

Chapter 8- Extrinsic Proofs: Arguments Waiting to be Used

Aristotle divided proofs into two kinds:

·         Intrinsic- must be invented by a rhetor.

·         Extrinsic- don’t need to be invented by rhetor. They include realistic evidence.

Extrinsic Proofs in Ancient Rhetorics

·         Cicero defined them as testimony.

·         Not always reliable.

·         Written work needs to be interpreted and not taking for face value. Therefore, not always reliable.

·         Laws, are a good example of something that needs to be interpreted.

Testimony

·         Persons who have nothing to gain when testifying are more credible than those to profit by doing so. – Aristotle

·         Ancient Rhetor’s never took someone’s testimony for face value.

·         Community and Proximate Authories

Community Authorities - Peoples whose words or actions have earned them given respect within a community.

·         Ancient and recent witnesses.

Evaluating Community Authorities

·         Credibility and accuracy

·         Some scholars disagree with one another

Proximate Authorities – “statements by people who were physical present at an event”

·         Often thought to be a reliable source.

·         Evaluations of the ability of the source to testify about the event are taken into consideration.

·         The worth of the testimony has to pass several tests.

Introduction of Law

·         Is the law clearly written and consistent with itself?

·         Is it expedient and can it be enforced?

RT- Margret Fell

Argued that during the Renaissance, women’s sense of themselves changed for the better.

·         Social Condition- women to be educated and use their education.

·         Could use rhetorical knowledge in public.

·         Renaissance women felt more empowered.

o   Political and religious issues.

·         Quaker women spoke in public on social issues

Margret was a prolific writer (750).

Main point- women began speaking up in the church.


RT: Thomas Wilson

Wrote a few books

·         The Rule of Reason- talks about dialectic and logic. Much of the same ideas as Aristotle.

·         The Arte of Rhetorique- first American book to deal with invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.

Renaissance Rhetoric

The change of rhetoric during the Renaissance period, between the 14th and 17th centuries, was due to many changes going on in Europe.

Education, religion, and other ideas were changing. There came to be more independent thought. Therefore, people were beginning to challenge the norms that had dictated there's and the lives of their ancestors for long in the past.

Humanism, "generally regarded as the first great intellectual movement of the Renaissance, and to many contemporary scholars, sets the tone for the whole period" (RT 556). Petrarch, the man acclaimed for starting humanism, began to interpret classical customs in a new way. Humanism made it's way all over Europe in a short time.

Peter Ramus
Honestly, this guy bugs me. He wrote a few controversial books bashing the ideas of classical thinkers. Who does he think he is? I don't know, I just thought he was pretty arrogant.

Ancient Rhetoric Speech

My Imitation (Speech)

Every four years, registered voters of the United States of America have an important decision to make. A decision that has potential to change their country in both negative and positive ways. The decision about who will lead their country for the next four years. Voting for president is a privilege that Americans should be thankful for and take advantage of. When voting, Americans need to take into consideration who will be the best leader for their country.

I am not going to tell to vote republican or democrat or try to sway your political views. Though a candidate’s plan of action and values are important, the ability of a candidate to lead a country is vital.

The United States of America is at a time where its leader’s smart decision making is important. For example, the decisions pertaining to the Middle East. As of recently, there are about 46,000 troops in Iraq. The next president will have to make decisions governing the actions being made oversees and whether to change the amount of soldiers deployed in that area. Leadership while tackling these decisions is key.

Leadership is a broad term that entails different characteristics of an individual. A leader is committed to building excellence while doing what is best for their organization. In order to do this, a leader needs to demonstrate good character. Good character includes honesty, competence, intelligence, being fair minded, and being courageous, just to name a few.

In order to determine if a candidate is honest, pay attention to their forwardness and stance on different topics, whether it is through debates or speeches. An honest candidate will have a consistent decision throughout their campaign. This means that paying attention to the campaign is essential for voters.

A candidate who exhibits confidence will make decisions based on reason. Whereas a candidate who lacks confidence will make decisions based on emotion. As all of you know, the recent war has caused people to elicit a great deal of emotions. For example, decisions being contemplated and made by the current president Barak Obama, dealing with the amount of troops the U.S. currently has in Iraq and plans to have in 2012, has caused high emotions and debate across the country. It is important for Barak Obama to do what’s best for his country without letting his emotions make the decision for him.

Intelligence is necessary for a candidate to be ready to address any task that is thrown their way. Though there were some incidences that may be considered pretenses to the 9/11 attacks, the government was stunned by what transpired on that tragic day. A president needs to be aware that an instance like 9/11 can happen and they need to be ready to deal with it.

Next, a leader needs to be just. Being fair and treating all citizens is important. The United States is made up of numerous races and cultures; therefore, showing equal treatment is necessary.

Lastly, a leader is show courage. Webster’s dictionary defines courage this as “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.” A president will have many different assignments and goals they have to take on. They need to be strong to attempt and complete them.

I urge you all to consider the importance of a leader for our country. A leader who exhibits the characteristics of a leader, a leader whose main goal is to better their country, a leader who values their people. If you aren’t a registered voter and can be, please register so that you can join me in having an impact on who will lead our country. Your participation can begin by paying attention to the debates and speeches online, in the news, and in newspapers. Thank you.

Reflection

“Leadership”

The most challenging part of the assignment, to find an ancient speech and develop an imitation to recite in class, was research. There are many different documented speeches from ancient rhetors, but finding a modern topic and being able to apply the style of the ancient speaker was difficult.

When beginning the assignment, I brainstormed topics that I was passionate about and would be appealing to an audience of college students. After compiling a list, the idea of nationalism seemed to be the topic best suited for the assignment and audience. In order to have nationalism, having knowledge of current events is essential. I began exploring websites including CNN.com, foxnews.com, and USAtoday.com. Then, I read newspapers such as The Daily Evergreen, The New York Times, and USA Today. Lastly, I explored podcasts by popular voices including Glenn Beck and NPR to evaluate their opinions on leadership. Most of these resources discussed politics and the effectiveness of our current president, Barack Obama. It occurred to me how important the upcoming presidential election of 2012 will be to the citizens of the United States. I decided the voting for a leader in the upcoming election would be the topic of my persuasive speech.

The next step was to find an ancient speech that I could imitate. I decided to use the “Third Philippic”, a speech by Demosthenes to the Athenians encouraging them to rise up

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against Kind Philip. Demosthenes was concerned with the actions being taken by King Philip and was trying to get the Athenians to have the energy to call for change.

            Demosthenes was not concerned with using vast words and intellectual language. He used common linguistics that an audience of both educated and commoners with little or no education would understand. He didn’t use many tropes or other devices, but chose to educate his audience on the lack of leadership of King Philip in order to get them on his side and call for change. Therefore, his speech was simple but adequately narrated the desired argument about current leadership. His intended argument was easily received by the Athenians audience.

My imitation is calling for U.S. citizens to take action by voting so they can better their country by demanding appropriate leadership.  My imitation describes the qualities of a good leader, which is what Demosthenes was trying to explain to the Athenians in his speech. My imitation uses language that common university students will be able to understand without the unnecessary strain of trying to understand the language.

Leadership was an important feature to consider for a king during the time of the ancient speech and can be applied to voting for a president in the present day. Leadership entails narrower characteristics that voters should be aware of.  Our textbook , Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students states, “Aristotle pointed out successful examples may be drawn from history” (Crowley 173). To strengthen my argument researching renowned leaders in history and identifying what made them successful seemed to be an important topic to discuss in my speech.

This brought me to my next challenge. I needed to research past leaders who left a legacy of successful leadership and dig deeper to be able to identify what characteristics made them

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effective. After exploring numerous online resources, there seemed to be a consensus that Moses, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy left a legacy of successful leadership. Knowing the

information I found could be considered highly subjective, I chose not to directly attribute the characteristics in my speech to specific historical people. However, I chose to use the leadership characteristics of the historic people to give my audience real life examples to apply to the present day. While researching, I learned characteristics including the need for a leader being imaginative, meaning being able to discover new and innovative ways to handle a situation and that the ability to speak and gain followers isn’t as important as a leader’s character.

After compiling the information I found though research, I made an outline of my imitation. The outline was helpful to put my ideas in order. When it finally became time to write my speech, linguistics, presentation, and delivery were the only strategies that needed tweaking.

Looking back after the speech was written; I enjoyed the assignment more than I thought I would. The instant overwhelming feeling I had when we received the assignment disappeared while researching, which was when I began to be interested in the topic. This assignment taught me that though ancient speeches were given so long ago, the rhetoric can be used for an audience today.