Kairos: The Rhetorical Situation

Word Count: 499

Kairos has multiple meanings in a rhetorical context. These include but are not limited to: symmetry, occasion, due measure, decorum, and wise moderation [1]. In Isocrates I the term is used to mean: circumstance, occasion, crisis, or opportunity; Poulakis notes that Kairos “dictates what is said must be said at the right time” [2]. Kairos as a rhetorical device was “the cornerstone of rhetoric in the Golden Age of Greece” [1]. It’s worth note however that Kairos predates Isocrates, playing a large role in the development of rhetoric from The Sophists. They developed Kairos in contrast with Chronos: Chronos is quantitative time; Kairos is the qualitative use of time. Ultimately academics alike conclude that Kairos “is a complex concept, not easily reduced to a simple formula” [1].

Kairos was a dominant theme in the writings of not only Isocrates, but of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero [1], and while Kairos preceded Isocrates, its noted in the introduction to Against the Sophists: “Clearly Isocrates… is also developing—some of the technical vocabulary that is used by other sophists, such as kairos” [3]. Additionally, in Archidamus and Nicocles, Isocrates draws on political conflict as a way to illustrate the importance of Kairos as a rhetorical tool. The premise becomes then that in times of strife, an appropriate kairos becomes the tool by which to control the (rhetorical) situation. Siporia (2002) notes “Archidamus relies heavily upon a sensitivity to kairos, both the speaker’s and the audience’s… kairos permits Archidamus to embrace the most advantageous of several competing logoi” [1]. In this sense, the Greeks were suggesting that there are certain actions and statements associated with a time that were considered “opportune”, allowing for the speaker to achieve the end goal they had; as Atwell (1998) states: “deploying an art at the ‘right moment’ in a particular situation is the sign of a true rhetor” [6].

While the term Kairos has never been absent from rhetoric, it has enjoyed a reemergence in rhetorical studies in the past few decades, due largely in part to Bitzer ‘s (1968) essay on the importance of studying the rhetorical situation; which in explanation mirrors the ideology of Kairos. Bitzer explains that in the study of rhetoric we must consider the moment at which that rhetoric arises, in addition to studying the rhetorical discourse, context, and speaker [4]. In addition to studying the rhetorical situation, Scott (2006) uses Kairos as a framework for studying the pharmaceutical industry’s response to bioterrorism following 9/11. Scott explains that the companies used the ‘right moment’ of 9/11 to illustrate the importance of BioShield, a project that gave billions of dollars to pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines to treat citizens for exposure to biohazards [5]. Seizing the moment of fear allowed for the rhetoric of these companies to justify the project.

Whether we refer to it directly as Kairos or as a ‘rhetorical situation’, it would appear this tool is alive and well in modern rhetoric, waiting for the next opportune moment to rise up.
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References
1. Siporia, P & Baumlin, J. (2002). Rhetoric and kairos: essays in history, theory, and praxis, SUNY Press.
2. Poulakas, J. (1983). Toward a Sophistic Definition of Rhetoric. Philosophy & Rhetoric 16: 35–48.
3. Isocrates, Mirhady, D.C., & Too, Y.L. (2000). Isocrates I, University of Texas Press.
4. Bitzer, L. (1968) The Rhetorical Situation. Philosophy and Rhetoric, 1 (January, 1968), 1-14.
5. Scott, J.B. (2006). “Kairos as indeterminate risk management: the pharmaceutical industry’s response to bioterrorism, Quarterly Journal of Speech, 92(2), 115-143.
6. Atwell, J. (1998.) Rhetoric reclaimed: Aristotle and the liberal arts tradition, Cornell University Press.