Leeman, Lampas en Logos. Een pleidooi voor een redelijke retorica

Abstract

This

article discusses the fruits of fifty years of Dutch scholarship on ancient

Greek and Roman rhetoric. A.D. Leeman, one of the founding fathers of both the

journal Lampas and the International Society for the History of Rhetoric, is identified as an influential pioneer, whose teaching and research inspired the Dutch school of classical rhetoric. Lampas published many contributions to the study of rhetorical practice and theory. A central theme in Leeman’s work was Cicero’s integration of rhetoric into a philosophically oriented humanism. This Ciceronian perspective on rhetoric, which deeply influenced the European tradition, tells us that the irrational modes of persuasion (êthos and pathos), which are unavoidable and indispensable in human communication, must always be genuine and sincere; and it demands that the orator considers both sides of a case. Building on Cicero’s De oratore and Leeman’s publications, this article concludes with a plea for a moderate and reasonable rhetoric.