Combative Sports in Aristotle

Rhetoric: Book I: Chapter 11

Victory also is pleasant, and not merely to "bad losers," but to every one; the winner sees himself in the light of a champion, and everybody has a more or less keen appetite for being that. The pleasantness of victory implies of course that combative sports and intellectual contests are pleasant [1371a] (since in these it often happens that some one wins) and also games like knuckle-bones, ball, dice, and draughts. And similarly with the serious sports; some of these become pleasant when one is accustomed to them; while others are pleasant from the first, like hunting with hounds, or indeed any kind of hunting. For where there is competition, there is victory. That is why forensic pleading and debating contests are pleasant to those who are accustomed to them and have the capacity for them.

Tech Rhet: a potential definition

I've been thinking a lot about what rhetoric means, and it is obviously set within the context of technical communication. So, here is some more thinking out loud/in text.

The power of persuasion and language through the use of forms & methods.

Self-Correcting Rhetoric, Maltz, and Wiener

This is some thinking/writing on the free fly:

In the TOPIC manual, Fred writes about the self-correcting nature of rhetoric. Essentially, through skillful presentations of multiple positions, the public can listen to and decide what action to take after hearing various options. Only one thing seems to be missing: a goal or a point. What is the purpose, after all. This may be so big, or assumed, but it was a trigger which got me thinking.

The oscillation between two different ideas, or three or four, reminded me of Maxwell Maltz's discussion and incorporation of Norbert Wiener's works in cybernetics and goal achievement. In the second chapter of Psycho-Cybernetics (18), Maltz refers to Wiener and the zig-zagging of torpedoes as they make their way to the targets. They make errors and then then adjust/correct for them, and move toward the goal. This is a vital part of Maltz's Psycho-Cybernetic approach to self-help.

The parallel I see is that rhetoric can operate as these voices, guides, or pings for a torpedo/culture and the direction they go. The other skillful voices and positions which are presented operate in order to adjust the course of the torpedo/person/culture towards its goal.

I understand this is a mashed up mix of ideas, but it makes me wonder how we deal with a nation, culture, family, or organization when there is no clear purpose, when there is no goal. If there is no general direction, then how can any decisions really be made? If there is no "there" to shoot for, we can wander all over the place.

The net result is that it seems like rhetoric can be extremely efficient and effective in communities where there is a well-conceived, understood, accepted, and/or shared goal. However, when everyone has a different goal, how can you possibly persuade anyone to do much of anything? Their goal is different than yours.

Aristotle: Rhetoric: Book I: Ch 9

Consequently, whenever you want to praise any one, think what you would urge people to do; and when you want to urge the doing of anything, think what you would praise a man for having done.

I need to think about this, but it seems like a masterful approach to manipulation. Again, this needs consideration.

Praise is the expression in words of the eminence of a man's good qualities, and therefore we must display his actions as the product of such qualities. Encomium refers to what he has actually done; the mention of accessories, such as good birth and education, merely helps to make our story credible -- good fathers are likely to have good sons, and good training is likely to produce good character. Hence it is only when a man has already done something that we bestow encomiums upon him. Yet the actual deeds are evidence of the doer's character: even if a man has not actually done a given good thing, we shall bestow praise on him, if we are sure that he is the sort of man who would do it. To call any one blest is, it may be added, the same thing as to call him happy; but these are not the same thing as to bestow praise and encomium upon him; the two latter are a part of "calling happy," just as goodness is a part of happiness.

Reading this made me wonder what we have currently which is similar to or functions as an encomium. Does a positive 30 second news spot count as one? Do media representations of good deeds actually have the same cultural important that formal encomiums did in ancient Greece? I wonder just how important or lost the role of praise and honor have become in modern culture. Again, more to think about.

Long Hair in Sparta

According to Aristotle in Rhetoric, Book 1, Chapter 9,

So are the distinctive qualities of a particular people, and the symbols of what it specially admires, like long hair in Sparta, where this is a mark of a free man, as it is not easy to perform any menial task when one's hair is long.

This is completely unrelated, but I wonder what cultural implications there are between the long hair of the Spartans, the long hair of the 60s, and the long hair of the self-indulgent glam-metal metals of the 80s.

Combat Sports Texts

Battle Exhortation: The Rhetoric of Combat Leadership
By Keith Yellin
Published by Univ of South Carolina Press, 2008
ISBN 1570037353, 9781570037351
191 pages

Possible. It seems like a stretch, but there's an early chapter on Greeks in there. Additionally, perhaps leadership can be linked to teacher/pedagogy?



Aaron Freundschuh
‘New Sport’ in the Street: Self-Defence, Security and Space in Belle Epoque Paris
French History Advance Access published on December 1, 2006, DOI 10.1093/fh/crl026.
French History 20: 424-441.

Of possible interest discussion self-defense. More interested in this in terms of bibliographies and sources.



Chapman, Kris. "Ossu! Sporting masculinities in a Japanese karate dōjō" Japan Forum 16.2 (2004). 09 Jan. 2009

Possibly interesting material on sports and masculinities. Get to examine the bibliographies. See if there's a discussion of budo vs. bujutsu.




Crowther, Nigel. "Sports, nationalism and peace in ancient Greece" Peace Review 11.4 (1999). 09 Jan. 2009

More than 100 years ago, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, declared that the Olympic games should promote “international understanding, brotherhood and peace.” Was this a modern concept, a dream of Coubertin, or did it resurrect the ideals of the ancient Olympics?

On the one hand, the ancient Olympic games certainly promoted in Greece a sense of unity among the independent city states, for Greece was for much of its history not a united nation but rather a collection of individual cities. Every four years the games brought together as many as 40,000 spectators, athletes, politicians, merchants and cultural figures to a festival that celebrated not only sports but also religion—since it honored Zeus and other gods. It was also a kind of trade fair, as were some of the more modern Olympics, such as the one held in Paris in 1900. The ancient Olympic games were the biggest single gathering of any kind in the Greek world, and thus their importance to the Greeks can hardly be overemphasized.

That was the official abstract. Maybe I need this? A little bit of background? I'm not sure, but I did not want to lose track of this.



Militarism, Sport, Europe: War Without Weapons
By J. A. Mangan
Published by Routledge, 2003
ISBN 0714653608, 9780714653600
316 pages


Virtually everywhere, directly or indirectly, modern men are prepared for war through sport. It has been no different in the past. Throughout history a constant imperative has been a moral commitment to defend the society. Sport has played its part in the inculcation of this commitment. However, sport has also been considered both a substitute for war and an antidote to war. This collection explores the relationship between sport and war and brings together established authors, including Peter J Beck, Hans Bonde, Vassil Girginov, J A Mangan, John McClelland and Gertrud Pfister, and emerging authors such as Steve Bailey, Penelope Kissoudi, Orestis Kustrin, Callum McKenzie, Alethea Melling, Antonio Misseroli, Hamad Ndee and Roberta Vescori.

This looks quite exciting with a lot of potential, but it is super expensive. Review the chapter selection more closely.

Rhetoric & Training & Greece: Potential Texts

Bodily Arts: Rhetoric and Athletics in Ancient Greece
By Debra Hawhee
Published by University of Texas Press, 2004
ISBN 0292705840, 9780292705845
226 pages

Check out The Arts of Training chapter



Hawhee, Debra.
Agonism and Arete
Philosophy and Rhetoric - Volume 35, Number 3, 2002, pp. 185-207

Appears to be very similar to the first chapter of her book Bodily Arts.



The Poet as Athlete
Mary R. Lejkowit
Journal of Sport History, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Summer, 1984)


In press, in Sport in the Cultures of the Ancient World, edited by Z.
Papakonstantinou. Special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.
London and New York: Routledge, 2009.
Sport, war and democracy in classical Athens
David M. Pritchard
School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, University of Queensland,
Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. Email: d.pritchard@uq.edu.au



The Smell of Sweat: Greek Athletics, Olympics, and Culture
By William Blake Tyrrell
Published by Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2004
ISBN 086516553X, 9780865165533
264 pages