Various concepts of "rhetoric" and contemporary rhetorical approaches

The term "rhetoric", which in the Islamic tradition has been equated with the term "rhetoric", has had two main meanings in ancient rhetoric: the first meaning is Aristotelian rhetoric, most commonly by rhetoric, techniques and tools. The other is the aesthetic or literary concept that links rhetoric with poetry, techniques, and imaginative tools. From these two approaches, three trends in the meaning and function of rhetoric emerged in contemporary times: the rational-philosophical approach, the stylistic-literary (poetic) approach, and finally the discursive-semiotic approach (contextual). The first two approaches are at odds; one draws rhetoric to the science of logic and the other links it to poetry. But the third approach seeks to extend the scope of this science so that it encompasses the two former concepts. In the history of Islamic rhetoric, such a triple approach to the concept of rhetoric is also available to critics and Islamic rhetoricians. The present study examines the evolution of each of these three approaches to contemporary theories in the field of rhetoric by studying descriptive-analytic method.