Reading so far, is like reading a history book. It is a nice change from Elbow, but it is venturing into territory of which I am not familiar(philosophical) ...so please, bear with me...
First, on page 1, it is defined that rhetoric is the ability in each {particular} case to see the available means of persuasion. Then there is the difference between physis (nature) and nomos (man), which are the different laws ancient Greeks believed in. Williams also mentions numerous names, some of which I have heard before: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle (to name a few). However, I remember these guys from my astronomy class not from any of my English classes (So I was kind of surprised to see them mentioned). I have never learned about the Sophists and all of their beliefs which include: the truth being relative, pragmatism, and probability. It is fascinating (although I honestly do not truly understand the full extent of it) that Socrates and Plato were completely against the Sophists because they held opposing beliefs. Then there is Aristotle who studied rhetoric and developed the original idea of Proof.Next, there are the differences between the Rhetoric of Rome and Athens which is because of different sociopolitical agenda.
Basically I got from this reading that we need to determine how rhetoric has changed in the Western culture from the times mentioned in the chapter up to today.
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