Generating, Intensifying, and Redirecting Emotionality: Conceptual and Ethnographic Implications of Aristotle’s Rhetoric

Robert Prus

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.9.4.01

Authors

Robert Prus University of Waterloo, Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.9.4.01

Keywords:

Emotionality, Theory, Ethnography, Aristotle, Rhetoric, Pragmatism, Interactionism, Persuasion, Negotiated Reality

Abstract

In contrast to those who more characteristically approach emotion as an individual realm of experience of more distinctive physiological and/or psychological sorts, this paper addresses emotionality as a socially experienced, linguistically enabled, activity-based process. While conceptually and methodologically situated within contemporary symbolic interactionist thought (Mead 1934; Blumer 1969; Strauss 1993; Prus 1996; 1997; 1999; Prus and Grills 2003), this statement is centrally informed by the pragmatist considerations of emotionality that Aristotle (circa 384-322 BCE) develops in Rhetoric. Although barely known to those in the human sciences, Aristotle’s Rhetoric provides a great deal of insight into people’s definitions of, and experiences with, a wide array of emotions. Addressing matters of persuasive interchange in political, judicial, and evaluative contexts, Aristotle gives particular attention to the intensification and neutralization of people’s emotional states. This includes (1) anger and calm, (2) friendship and enmity, (3) fear and confidence, (4) shame and shamelessness, (5) kindness and inconsideration, (6) pity and indignation, and (7) envy and emulation. Following an introduction to “rhetoric” (as the study of persuasive interchange) and “emotionality,” this paper briefly (1) outlines a pragmatist/interactionist approach to the study of emotionality, (2) considers Aristotle as a sociological pragmatist, (3) locates Aristotle’s work within the context of classical Greek thought, (4) acknowledges the relationship of emotionality and morality, and (5) addresses emotionality as a generic social process. Following (6) a more sustained consideration of emotionality within the context of Aristotle’s Rhetoric, the paper concludes with (7) a short discussion of the importance of Aristotle’s work for studying emotionality as a realm of human lived experience on a contemporary plane.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Robert Prus, University of Waterloo, Canada

Robert Prus is a sociologist at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. A symbolic interactionist, ethnographer, and social theorist, Robert Prus has been examining the conceptual and methodological connections of American pragmatist philosophy and its sociological offshoot, symbolic interactionism, with classical Greek and Latin scholarship. As part of this larger project, he also has been analyzing some of Emile Durkheim’s lesser known texts (on morality, education, religion, and philosophy) mindfully of their pragmatist affinities with symbolic interactionist scholarship and Aristotle’s foundational emphasis on the nature of human knowing and acting.

References

Aristotle. 1984. The Complete Works of Aristotle. Edited by Jonathan Barnes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Google Scholar

Aristotle. 1995a. Politics (Books I and II). Translated by Trevor J. Saunders. New York: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oseo/instance.00259304

Aristotle. 1995b. Treatise on Rhetoric: Aristotle. Translated by Theodore Buckley. Amherst, NY: Prometheus.
Google Scholar

Aristotle. 1996. Politics (Books III and IV). Translated by Richard Robinson. New York: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Becker, Howard S. 1963. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: Free Press.
Google Scholar

Becker, Howard S. 1970. Sociological Work: Method and Substance. Chicago: Aldine.
Google Scholar

Berger, Peter and Thomas Luckmann. 1966. The Social Construction of Reality. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
Google Scholar

Blumer, Herbert. 1969. Symbolic Interaction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Google Scholar

Charmaz, Kathy. 1991. Good Days and Bad Days: The Self in Chronic Illness and Time. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Google Scholar

Charmaz, Kathy. 1995. “The Body, Identity, and Self: Adapting to Impairment.” Sociological Quarterly 36(4):657-680.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1995.tb00459.x

Denzin, Norman K. 1984. On Understanding Emotion. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Google Scholar

Dietz, Mary Lorenz. 1994. “On Your Toes: Dancing Your Way into the Ballet World.” Pp. 66-84 in Doing Everyday Life: Ethnography as Human Lived Experience, edited by Mary Lorenz Dietz, Robert Prus, and William Shaffir. Toronto: Copp Clark Longman.
Google Scholar

Dietz, Mary Lorenz and Michael Cooper. 1994. “Being Recruited: The Experiences of «Blue Chip» High School Athletes.” Pp. 109-125 in Doing Everyday Life: Ethnography as Human Lived Experience, edited by Mary Lorenz Dietz, Robert Prus, and William Shaffir. Toronto: Copp Clark Longman.
Google Scholar

Durkheim, Emile. 1915 [1912]. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Translated by Joseph Ward Swain. London: Allen and Unwin.
Google Scholar

Evans, Donald A. 1987. “Institutionally Developed Identities: An Ethnographic Account of Reality Construction in a Residential School for the Deaf.” Pp. 161-184 in Sociological Studies of Child Development. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Google Scholar

Evans, Donald A. 1988. “Strange Bedfellows: Deafness, Language and the Sociology of Knowledge.” Symbolic Interaction 11(2):235-255.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1988.11.2.235

Evans, Donald A. 1994. “Socialization into Deafness.” Pp. 129-142 in Doing Everyday Life: Ethnography as Human Lived Experience, edited by Mary Lorenz Dietz, Robert Prus, and William Shaffir. Toronto: Copp Clark Longman.
Google Scholar

Evans, Donald A. and William W. Falk. 1986. Learning to be Deaf. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110846843

Fine, Gary Alan. 2001. Gifted Tongues: High School Debate and Adolescent Culture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Google Scholar

Garfinkel, Harold. 1956. “Conditions of Successful Degradation Ceremonies.” American Journal of Sociology 61:420‑424.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/221800

Garfinkel, Harold. 1967. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice‑Hall.
Google Scholar

Glaser Barney G. and Anselm L. Strauss. 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
Google Scholar

Grills, Scott. 1994. “Recruitment Practices of the Christian Heritage Party.” Pp. 96-108 in Doing Everyday Life: Ethnography as Human Lived Experience, edited by Mary Lorenz Dietz, Robert Prus, and William Shaffir. Toronto: Copp Clark Longman.
Google Scholar

Grills, Scott, (ed.). 1998. Doing Ethnographic Research: Fieldwork Settings. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar

Grills, Scott and Robert Prus. 2008. “The Myth of the Independent Variable: Reconceptualizing Class, Gender, Race, and Age as Subcultural Processes.” The American Sociologist 39(1):19-37.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-007-9026-6

Haas, Jack and William Shaffir. 1987. Becoming Doctors: The Adoption of a Cloak of Competence. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Google Scholar

Harré, Rom. 1986. The Social Construction of Emotions. Oxford: Basil Blackwood.
Google Scholar

Izard, Carroll E. 2009. “Emotion Theory and Research: Highlights, Unanswered Questions, and Emerging Issues.” Annual Review of Psychology 60:1-25.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163539

Karp, David A. 1996. Speaking of Sadness: Depression, Disconnection, and the Meanings of Illness. New York: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/med:psych/9780195094862.001.0001

Katz, Jack. 1999. How Emotions Work. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

Lewis, Michael, Janette M. Haviland-Jones, and Lisa Feldman Barrett. 2010. Handbook of Emotions. 3rd ed. New York: Guilford Press.
Google Scholar

Lofland, John. 1977 [1966]. The Doomsday Cult: A Study in Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith. New York: Irvington Publishers.
Google Scholar

MacLeod, Bruce A. 1993. Club Date Musicians: Playing the New York Party Circuit. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Google Scholar

Mead, George Herbert. 1934. Mind, Self, and Society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

Plato. 1937. The Dialogues of Plato. Edited by Benjamin Jowett. New York: Random House.
Google Scholar

Plato. 1961. The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400835867

Plato. 1997. Plato: The Collected Works. Edited by John M. Cooper. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
Google Scholar

Prus, Robert. 1975a. “Labeling Theory: A Reconceptualization and a Propositional Statement on Typing.” Sociological Focus 8:79‑96.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.1975.10571419

Prus, Robert. 1975b. “Resisting Designations: An Extension of Attribution Theory into a Negotiated Context.” Sociological Inquiry 45:31‑14.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1975.tb01209.x

Prus, Robert. 1976. “Religious Recruitment and the Management of Dissonance: A Sociological Perspective.” Sociological Inquiry 46(2):127-134.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1976.tb00757.x

Prus, Robert. 1989a. Making Sales: Influence as Interpersonal Accomplishment. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar

Prus, Robert. 1989b. Pursuing Customers: An Ethnography of Marketing Activities. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar

Prus, Robert. 1996. Symbolic Interaction and Ethnographic Research: Intersubjectivity and the Study of Human Lived Experience. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Google Scholar

Prus, Robert. 1997. Subcultural Mosaics and Intersubjective Realities: An Ethnographic Research Agenda for Pragmatizing the Social Sciences. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Google Scholar

Prus, Robert. 1999. Beyond the Power Mystique: Power as Intersubjective Accomplishment. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Google Scholar

Prus, Robert. 2003a. “Ancient Precursors.” Pp. 19-38 in Handbook of Symbolic Interactionism, edited by Larry T. Reynolds and Nancy J. Herman-Kinney. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.
Google Scholar

Prus, Robert. 2003b. “Policy as a Collective Venture: A Symbolic Interactionist Approach to the Study of Organizational Directives.” International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 23(6):13-60.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/01443330310790589

Prus, Robert. 2004. “Symbolic Interaction and Classical Greek Scholarship: Conceptual Foundations, Historical Continuities, and Transcontextual Relevancies.” The American Sociologist 35(1):5-33.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-004-1001-x

Prus, Robert. 2007a. “Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics: Laying the Foundations for a Pragmatist Consideration of Human Knowing and Acting.” Qualitative Sociology Review 3(2):5-45.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.3.2.02

Prus, Robert. 2007b. “Human Memory, Social Process, and the Pragmatist Metamorphosis: Ethnological Foundations, Ethnographic Contributions and Conceptual Challenges.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 36(4):378-437.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241606299029

Prus, Robert. 2007c. “On Studying Ethnologs (Not just People, ‘Societies in Miniature’): On the Necessities of Ethnography, History, and Comparative Analysis.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 36(6):669-703.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241606299030

Prus, Robert. 2008a. “Aristotle’s Rhetoric: A Pragmatist Analysis of Persuasive Interchange.” Qualitative Sociology Review 4(2):24-62.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.4.2.02

Prus, Robert. 2009. “Poetic Expressions and Human Enacted Realities: Plato and Aristotle Engage Pragmatist Motifs in Greek Fictional Representations.” Qualitative Sociology Review 5(1):3-27.
Google Scholar

Prus, Robert. 2010. “Creating, Sustaining, and Contesting Definitions of Reality: Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BCE) as a Pragmatist Theorist and Analytic Ethnographer.” Qualitative Sociology Review 6(2):3-50.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.6.2.01

Prus, Robert. 2011a. “Defending Education and Scholarship in the Classical Greek Era: Pragmatist Motifs in the Works of Plato (c420-348BCE) and Isocrates (c436-338BCE).” Qualitative Sociology Review 7(1):1-35.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.07.1.01

Prus, Robert. 2011b. “Examining Community Life ‘in the Making’: Emile Durkheim’s Moral Education.” The American Sociologist 42:56-111.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-010-9119-5

Prus, Robert. 2011c. “Morality, Deviance, and Regulation: Pragmatist Motifs in Plato’s Republic and Laws.” Qualitative Sociology Review 7(2):1-44.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.07.2.01

Prus, Robert. 2012. “On the Necessity of Re-engaging the Classical Greek and Latin Literatures: Lessons from Emile Durkheim’s The Evolution of Educational Thought.” The American Sociologist 43:172-202.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-012-9154-5

Prus, Robert. 2013. “Representing, Defending, and Questioning Religion: Pragmatist Sociological Motifs in Plato’s Timaeus, Phaedo, Republic, and Laws.” Qualitative Sociology Review 9(1):6-42.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.09.1.01

Prus, Robert and Fatima Camara. 2010. “Love, Friendship, and Disaffection in Plato and Aristotle: Toward a Pragmatist Analysis of Interpersonal Relationships.” Qualitative Sociology Review 6(3):29-62.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.6.3.02

Prus, Robert and Scott Grills. 2003. The Deviant Mystique: Involvements, Realities, and Regulation. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Google Scholar

Prus, Robert and Styllianoss Irini. 1980. Hookers, Rounders, and Desk Clerks: The Social Organization of the Hotel Community. Salem, WI: Sheffield.
Google Scholar

Prus, Robert and Richard G. Mitchell, Jr. 2009. “Engaging Technology: A Missing Link in the Sociological Study of Human Knowing and Acting.” Qualitative Sociology Review 5(2):17-53.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.5.2.02

Prus, Robert and C.R.D. Sharper. 1977. Road Hustler: The Career Contingencies of Professional Card and Dice Hustlers. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
Google Scholar

Prus, Robert and C.R.D. Sharper. 1991. Road Hustler: Grifters, Magic, and the Thief Subculture. New York: Kaufman and Greenberg.
Google Scholar

Puddephatt, Antony J., William Shaffir, and Steven W. Kleinknecht, (eds.). 2009. Ethnographies Revisited: Constructing Theory in the Field. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203876503

Roebuck, Julian B. and Wolfgang Frese. 1976. The Rendezvous: A Case Study of an After-hours Club. New York: Free Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/089124167600500201

Sanders, Clinton. 1989. Customizing the Body: The Art and Culture of Tattooing. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Google Scholar

Schütz, Alfred. 1962. Collected Papers I: The Problem of Social Reality. Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Google Scholar

Schütz, Alfred. 1964. Collected Papers II: Studies in Social Theory. Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Google Scholar

Shaffir, William. 1974. Life In A Religious Community: The Lubavitcher Chassidim In Montreal. Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada.
Google Scholar

Shaffir, William. 1978a. “Becoming an Orthodox Jew: The Socialization of Newcomers in a Chassidic Community.” Pp. 295-309 in The Canadian Ethnic Mosaic: A Quest for Identity, edited by L. Dreidger. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
Google Scholar

Shaffir, William. 1978b. “Witnessing as Identity Consolidation: The Case of Lubavitcher Chassidim.” Pp.39-57 in Identity and Religion, edited by H. Mol. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar

Shaffir, William. 1983. “Hassidic Jews and Quebec Politics.” The Jewish Journal of Sociology 25(2):105-118.
Google Scholar

Shaffir, William. 1987. “Separated From the Mainstream: The Hassidic Community of Tash.” The Jewish Journal of Sociology 29(1):19-35.
Google Scholar

Shaffir, William. 1991. “Conversion Experiences: Newcomers to and Defectors from Orthodox Judaism.” Pp. 173-202 in Tradition, Innovation, Conflict: Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Israel, edited by Z. Sobel and B. Beit-Hallahmi. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Google Scholar

Shaffir, William. 1993. “Jewish Messianism Lubavitch Style: An Interim Report.” The Jewish Journal of Sociology 35(2):115-128.
Google Scholar

Shaffir, William. 1995a. “Boundaries and Self-Presentation among Hasidim: A Study in Identity Maintenance.” Pp. 31-68 in New World Hasidim: Ethnographic Studies Of Hasidic Jews in America, edited by J. Belcove-Shalin. New York: SUNY Press.
Google Scholar

Shaffir, William. 1995b. “When Prophecy Is Not Validated: Explaining the Unexpected in a Messianic Campaign.” The Jewish Journal of Sociology 37(2):119-136.
Google Scholar

Shaffir, William. 1998. “Still Separated From the Mainstream: A Hassidic Community Revisited.” The Jewish Journal of Sociology 39(1/2):46-62.
Google Scholar

Shaffir, William. 2000a. “Hassidim and the Rebbe: Some Initial Observations.” The Jewish Journal of Sociology 42(1/2):73-85.
Google Scholar

Shaffir, William. 2000b. “Movements in and out of Orthodox Judaism: The Cases of Penitents and the Disaffected.” Pp. 269-285 in Joining and Leaving Religion: Research Perspectives, edited by Leslie J. Francis and Yaacov J. Katz. Trowbridge, Waltshire: Gracewing.
Google Scholar

Shaffir, William and Steven Kleinknecht. 2005. “Death at the Polls: Experiencing and Coping with Political Defeat.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 34(6):707-738.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241605279839

Shaffir, William and Robert Stebbins. 1991. Experiencing Fieldwork: An Inside View of Qualitative Methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483325514

Shaffir, William, Robert A. Stebbins, and Allan Turowetz. 1980. Fieldwork Experience: Qualitative Approaches to Social Research. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Google Scholar

Shott, Susan. 1979. “Emotion and Social Life: A Symbolic Interactionist Analysis.” American Journal of Sociology 84:1317-1334.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/226936

Spangler, Sister Mary Michael. 1998. Aristotle on Teaching. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Google Scholar

Stebbins, Robert. 1990. The Laugh-Makers: Stand-Up Comedy as Art, Business, and Life Style. Kingston, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Google Scholar

Stets, Jan E. and Jonathan H. Turner, (eds.). 2007. Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions. New York: Springer.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30715-2

Strauss, Anselm L. 1993. Continual Permutations of Action. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
Google Scholar

Sutherland, Edwin. 1937. The Professional Thief. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

Thoits, Peggy A. 1989. “The Sociology of Emotions.” Annual Review of Sociology 15:317-342.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.15.080189.001533

Thoits, Peggy A. 1995. “Social Psychology: The Interplay between Sociology and Psychology.” Social Forces 73:1231-1243.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2580444

Wolf, Charlotte. 1994. “Conversion into Feminism.” Pp. 143-157 in Doing Everyday Life: Ethnography as Human Lived Experience, edited by Mary Lorenz Dietz, Robert Prus, and William Shaffir. Toronto: Copp Clark Longman.
Google Scholar

Wolf, Daniel. 1991. The Rebels: A Brotherhood of Outlaw Bikers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Google Scholar