Overview of Boethius's Overview

                Boethius’s overview of rhetoric seemed to be a summary of the concepts that we have learned up to this point in the course. His outlook on the subject seems to be comprehensive, and his theories of rhetoric reflect the depth of his study into rhetoric; even though he seemed, according to our text, to identify himself more as a philosopher rather than a rhetor. Fortunately, for our modern culture, he devoted himself to the preservation of the texts of the ancients, translating the works of Plato and Aristotle into Latin for preservation.

                Boethius Overview of the Structure of Rhetoric states that he believes that there are three main types of rhetoric: judicial, demonstrative, and deliberative. Boethius goes on to state that the purpose of judicial rhetoric is to deal with topics that have to do with rendering honor, demanding satisfaction, or dealing with individual cases. Furthermore, Boethius states that judicial rhetoric also deals with anything seeking justice, or when it comes to seeking justice in a court of law.

                Boethius describes demonstrative rhetoric as the debate as to if something is socially useful or proper in the public arena. Boethius further states that demonstrative rhetoric involves cases that have to deal with general topics such as war and peace. Boethius then describes demonstrative rhetoric as something that deals with “what deserves praise or blame”, and “anything treating of the property, justice, or goodness or an act already preformed in a matter of public interest”.

                Boethius then states that there are 5 parts to rhetoric: invention, disposition, style, memory, and delivery. In this instance, Boethius insists on the use of the word “parts”, since in his opinion, if an speaker lacks any of what he considers to be essential parts, his use of rhetoric will be incomplete. Boethius states that no matter what type of rhetoric that a speaker may choose to use, he must have all of the parts required to use rhetoric.

                Boethius goes on to state that the tool of rhetoric is oration, and that the rhetorical oration has 6 parts: introduction, partition, proof, refutation, and peroration. Boethius states that all of these parts of the rhetorical oration must exist in all parts of rhetoric, and unless all parts of the rhetorical oration are present, then the rhetorical oration is useless. Boethius then states that the rhetor must have a goal, both in himself and his audience.

The reading at this point becomes muddled, because of the multiple words used for what the translator assumes should be a similar meaning or idea. Boethius goes over the idea of issues and parts of cases, where he uses the word “status” and the words “constitutiones/constitutio”. Due to the confusion in the text, the author/translator uses the words in the instances that he uses them. From what I am able to discern from the reading is that Boethius the aforementioned types of rhetoric: judicial, demonstrative, and deliberative, are closely related. Boethius then states that many issues can compound each other and work to enhance each other to put forth an argument.