In Book II Chapter 2 page 60 line 1378 of "Aristotle," it says, "It must always be attended by a certain pleasure-that which arises from the expectation of revenge." I interpreted this to mean that in order for a rhetor to invoke anger within his/her audience that rhetor must embed a component of vengance in their rhetoric. I disagree.
Consider the ideal American family consisting of a husband, wife, and kids. Whenever one of the children does something unruly, the mother waits for the father to get home from work then tells him of the misbehavior. In doing so, the mother utilizes a pathetic appeal which includes evoking anger in her husband. Sometimes the anger is evoked because the parents have spoken with the child about a particular problem multiple times, yet the child continues to disobey. Ultimately, the mother wants her husband to punish the child.
Though everyone has experienced their parents' anger, I don't believe most people would say their parents seek revenge in their anger. In the above example, the mother might create anger within her spouse to lead him to an action, but punishing a child isn't seeking revenge.
That's my take on anger.
I think you raise an interesting point. Can there anger arise without a desire for vengeance or revenge? Aristotle says no; you say yes; and I agree with you. Your parenting example is a good one. The parents are angry with the kids, and may opt to punish the kids, but more likely than not they have good intentions. They’re not trying to get back at their kids, and they’re not trying to seek revenge; rather they’re probably trying to discipline the kids out of love.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Aristotle would call that kind of anger something else.
Regardless, I do agree with you that Aristotle’s definitions of the various pathae pairs are flawed, to say the least. I too found issue with his definition of anger. For instance, Aristotle says that we are not angry when we discover that another’s offenses against us were unintentional, which I found ideal, but absurd. What about the drunk driver who hits us “unintentionally”? Are we less angry with him because he was under the influence?
We do have to realize, though, that Aristotle wrote at a different time and for pedagogy.