Class notes on Quintilian

(Originally written January 19, 2007 in Book 12)

Class Notes

Quintilian

Endowed chair of Rhetoric in 71 AD by the emperor

Believed that both the father and the mother are the primary teachers of the children. Must speak correctly and proper to one's own children and model lifelong learning.

Age 7 - Learn language
Age 14 - Grammar school

Then, rhetorical training.

Quintilian's principles for teaching (educational principles)
- Different ages ought to be corrected in different ways (more individualized)
- Caution against too much praise so it seems too false
- We imitate those we like, teacher has to be liked/respected so as to encourage imitation
- Teacher should have feeling of parent toward pupils (implies moral guidance)
- Avoid being so free of fault that you are free of merit
- Teacher need to "stoop" to teaching the details, must have the ability to give instruction in small matters even if the teacher has obtained great things
- Teacher ought to have a balance between being rough in correction and praise, a good teacher gives reasons why for correction
- don't expect perfection of style, but prefer exuberance and invention, not demanding perfection when it is unreasonable
- best teachers can teach the early things
- tenderness of teacher
- morals of teacher and classroom must first be established
- teachers ought to give exacting tasks, not long ones
- Don't let the students praise each other too much
- No mixed cohort
- Teacher shouldn't be superfluous in praising students
- Best teachers can teach the simple things
- Perspicuity - chief virtue of eloquence: less able people try to puff up and are compensating for some deficiency
- One should lower one's self to the pupil's level
- Consistency in teaching

Quintilian's caring for the students was unprecedented and many centuries following no one showed this much care investing in students.

Quintilian's definition of rhetoric/rhetorician:
- A good man speaking well, no man can be an orator if he is not a good man
- the art of oratory includes many other subjects (arts)
- a perfect orator must have all the excellences of character
- rhetoric includes the art (theory), artist and the speech
- Rhetoric is the science of speaking well
- Rhetoric is the action, not the result of the speech

Definition of rhetoric according to Quintilian: Art (set of principles), Artist (moral character) Speech (best possible, but not necessarily successful)

Rhetoric is the culmination of theory, speaker, and speech in action producing from the moral character and ability of the speaker, the best possible, but not successful by necessity, speech.

Rhetorical education includes:
I. Invention
- Arrangement
II. Eloquence
- Memory
- Delivery
III. Philosophical knowledge
IV. Historical knowledge

Stasis

Definition is vital to the proof used

"By settling what a thing is we have come near to determining its identity, for our purpose is to produce a definition that is applicable to our case" (221).

Reading and Writing Principles:
- Go over reading with care (when it well)
- Critical function guides reading, not ethos or pathos
- Read through from cover to cover, multiple times
- Memorize from your written paper
- Research the facts of the case
- Read only the best authors
- Don't assume that the author is perfect
- Poetry is good to read (Roman/Greek poetry: moral and philosophical in nature)
- Read history
- Read philosophy

Memory (Principles of)
- Importance of Memory
- Knowing the laws
- Knowing own speech
- Knowing opponents' words
- Writing aids memory. Memory aids association of place helps in memory

- Symbols
- Learning in pieces
- Practice and industry
- Dividing and ordering