Communication has always been an essential factor for human life. Humans constantly rely on communication in order to exchange ideas and to make decisions. Thanks to the ancient Greeks, their great knowledge of organizational ways led to the development of early, effective communication. The Athenians are credited for developing the adversary system and democracy. Both of which have been greatly implemented in much of today’s society. The adversary system is better known today as the judicial system and a democracy is a form of government that allows regular citizens to be able to vote and have a say in politics. Overtime, skilled individuals known as sophists helped broaden the “art” of communication. Sophists were teachers of rhetoric, persuasive public speaking. Corax, Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias, and Isocrates were the names of some of the most influential sophists of their time, which was around fourth and fifth century B.C. Through these sophists ordinary citizens learned how to use communication in order to not only persuade but to also find the Truth, to be able to bargain, to argue, and to educate others, too. Generally, all sophists liked to focus to on arete, which calls for being an active participant in domestic, social, and political life.
Eventually, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle became well known. Socrates and Aristotle viewed rhetoric in a positive light being that it was always useful when it came to making decisions and determining the Truth. In fact, it was Aristotle who believed that communication involves having a purpose, being able to categorize amongst three types of situations (forensic, deliberative, and epideictic oratory), and persuasion (with the appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos or credibility, argument, and emotion.) With these appeals were five skills: 1) invention (the ability to generate ideas); 2) disposition (the ability to organize ideas); 3) style (the ability to use language appropriately); 4) memory (the ability to remember facts and ideas); and 5) delivery (the ability to speak in a clear, strong voice). Altogether, these different factors helped comprise an effective communicator, well at least according to Aristotle. Nevertheless, Plato remained reserved about the concept and believed it was a form of deception because it is all part of the process of persuasion. Nevertheless, rhetoric became a solid foundation for the study of communication.
From Aristotle’s time to the 20th century, communication continued to improve with the consideration of growing civilizations, differences, and opinions. When the Romans conquered Greece written knowledge immediately became translated so that it could make sense for their own people. Then thereafter the downfall of the Roman Empire, communication made its way through Christianity, the Moors, the Renaissance period, and to the beginning of Western Civilization. By the time it reached the Enlightenment, communication was also seen as a “science” as proposed by Francis Bacon and it allowed humans to “co-exist and reap the benefits of society” without interfering with an individual’s power to freely make their own decisions as viewed by John Locke, a philosopher at the time. As rhetoric expanded in England and the United States, elocution became more of a concept in demand because it was an art that allowed an individual to be able to properly present themselves in society and convey a message to to others. The overall definition of communication has come a long way but it has yet to be further-explored in a modern-day standpoint.
Dues, Michael & Brown, Mary (2004). Boxing Plato's Shadow: An Introduction to the Study of Human Communication. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
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