ABSTRACT
Recent scholarship on epideictic has provided important insights into the inventional character of rhetoric as it was practiced by the sophists and rhetoricians of Greek antiquity. Aristotle's Rhetoric was composed to deal with the practical necessities and uncertainties of governance in a free society. This chapter explores a dimension of Aristotle's discussion of epideictic that adds to the recently emerging literature focused on this genre's political ramifications. It discusses a relationship between epideictic and phronesis that suggests how it was possible for an enlightened rhetoric to overcome the emotion of prejudice in framing public issues and in realizing rhetoric's telos of krisis. The chapter suggests the implications of his rhetorical vision for a modern day public sphere. Aristotle's notion of a properly ordered rhetoric assumes that responsible persuasion translates the theoretical contents of politics and ethics into the praxis of statescraft and citizenship.
