George Kennedy presents a series of theses arguing that rhetoric is prior to things like speech and writing, using observations on animal communication to do so. While I was intrigued by some of his propositions, I did find myself questioning some of his theories. I was particularly skeptical of thesis VI ("Among the traditional parts of rhetoric (invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery), delivery is prior to the others") and thesis VIII ("Rhetorical invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery are phenomena of nature and prior to speech").
While I agreed with Kennedy's assessment that "Physical motion in response to some exigence occurs in the earliest and most primitive forms of life" (Kennedy 12), I was not convinced that that meant delivery comes before parts of rhetoric like invention. I can certainly conceive of delivery coming before memory, style, and arrangement, but it seems highly unlikely to me for delivery to always come before invention. Although Kennedy notes that he is referring to "action, not subtleties of vocalization" (Kennedy 12) when talking about delivery, I find that even this can't be held as a good rule. I don't think everyone makes a discernible physical motion in response to someone's speech, unless the action of opening the mouth counts.
My criticism of thesis VIII is similar to that of thesis VI, namely that I can't see Kennedy's listed categories of rhetoric as always being prior to speech. Perhaps I missed something in my reading, but does a baby's first words necessarily indicate that rhetorical invention took place before he/she said something? I understand memory and delivery coming before that, but I can't get my head around rhetorical invention being prior to speech.
I believe that Kennedy's argument that "rhetoric is prior to speech" stems from defining rhetoric as a desire and method to persuade. As we outlined in class, rhetoric is not exclusively spoken - physical actions are also very potent rhetorical methods. Rhetoric isn't just speech, but rather, speech is another form of rhetoric.
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