Aristotle and Style

This book examines what Aristotle has to say about style, metaphor, the figures of speech, and other less recognized stylistic elements within his corpus.

Proceeding from the texts themselves, this study argues that Aristotle's discussion of style in the Rhetoric is conceptually consistent with his treatment of invention in that text.

By applying Aristotle's theory to his own intellectual practices in the Nicomachean Ethics, this study also illuminates the way that Aristotle's thinks through his intellectual and rhetorical practices.

As such, Aristotle offers to contemporary readers a relatively coherent understanding of what style is and how it contributes to successful and appropriate persuasion in more than the traditional decorative sense.

He also demonstrates the range of his own theoretical statements.

In these ways, Aristotle provides us with a fresh perspective on ancient and contemporary concerns with language.