Quod decet? This question arises in every rhetorical situation in which the orator wants to enforce his agenda through a speech. Even though appropriateness is a genuinely rhetorical category, it has hardly been the focus of modern research in rhetoric so far. The concept of appropriateness poses a problem for the theory of rhetoric as there are first of all numerous terms for it (aptum, πρέπον, decorum) which have been handed down from old Greek to Latin. Secondly, the topic of appropriateness has proven to be interdisciplinary over the centuries and its character is not easy to grasp within the theory of rhetoric. That is the reason why it is important to determine πρέπον/decorum in rhetoric for our digital age today.
Rhetoric still has to defend itself when it comes to the clash of the ideal of rational argumentation on the one hand and the rhetorical claims for efficiency on the other.
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