- In rhetoric history he perhaps is best known for dividing the five canons and assigning invention, arrangement and memory to dialectic/logic and style and delivery to rhetoric.
- Liked parsing knowledge into binary tree graphs
- Is often classified as a French Humanist, and he definitely held some Humanist positions:
- puts the human knower at the center of experience (in fact he sees human reason as the transcendent thing)
- rejects received wisdom, especially as it manifests in Scholasticism
- this is evident in his attacks on Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian
- he also later rejects Catholicism and becomes a Protestant
- is interested in language
- Despite these Humanist leanings, some of his positions, especially those regarding language and rhetoric, are at odds with the prevailing Italian Humanism. Our book states: "His attack on classical thought and language is so vigorous that one might question whether he can be called a Humanist at all" (568).
Arguments in Rhetoric against Quintilian
- Makes the big, famous split of the five canons
- Logic/dialectic
- Invention
- Arrangement
- Memory
- Rhetoric
- Occasionally uses a didactic, condescending tone (including ad hominem attacks)
- Clearly has a definite perspective: doesn't so much provide evidence as speak in presumed certainties
- Sees the existence of non-virtuous orators as evidence that rhetoric must be separate from virtue
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