Bitzer, Lloyd F. “The Rhetorical Situation.” Philosophy and Rhetoric (Winter 1968): 1-14.
Bitzer begins this piece with a series of hypothetical situations in which “words suggest the presence of events, persons, or objects” (1), and this leads into his idea of a rhetorical situation, causing him to state further that “situations are not always accompanied by discourse…it is the situation which calls the discourse into existence” (2). He thus proposes “a theory of situation” (3) and explains further by stating that “rhetoric is situational” (3) because it, meaning rhetoric, is “a mode of altering reality” (4) and that “rhetorical discourse comes into being in order to effect change” (4).
Bitzer therefore views rhetorical situation as “a natural context of persons, events, objects, relations, and an exigence which invites utterance” (5) and explains further:
So controlling is situation that we should consider it the very ground of rhetorical activity, whether that activity is primitive and productive of a simple utterance or artistic and productive of the Gettysburg Address. (5)
Furthermore, to say that rhetoric is situational means:
rhetorical discourse comes into existence as a response to situation…;(2) a speech is given rhetorical significance by the situation…; (3) a rhetorical situation must exist as a necessary condition of rhetorical discourse…; (4)…many rhetorical situations mature and decay without giving birth to rhetorical utterance; (5) a situation is rhetorical insofar as it needs and invites discourse capable of participating with situation and thereby altering its reality; (6) discourse is rhetorical insofar as it functions (or seeks to function) as a fitting response to a situation which needs and invites it…(7) the situation controls the rhetorical response in the same sense that the question controls the answer and the problem controls the solution.
Bitzer then offers a formal definition rhetorical situation as
a complex of persons, events, objects, and relationships presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant modification of the exigence. (6)
Afterward, he outlines three constituents of any rhetorical situation: exigence, audience and constraints. The first of these is “an imperfection marked by urgency” (6) which also functions as the organizing principle by specifying “the audience to be addressed and the change to be effected” (7). The second of these, audience, which is something rhetoric always requires (7), consists “only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change” (8). The third of these, constraints, has two main classes, “those originated or managed by the rhetor and his method” (8) and “those other constraints, in the situation, which may be operative” (8). Bitzer also notes that Aristotle called the former ‘artistic proofs’ and the latter ‘inartistic proofs’ before closing by stating that these three components “comprise everything in a rhetorical situation” (8).
Bitzer then offers some general characteristics or features of the conception of the rhetorical situation
Rhetorical discourse is called into existence by situation; the situation which the rhetor perceives to an invitation to create and present discourse. (8)
The rhetorical situation invites a fitting response, a response that fits the situation. (9)
To say that a rhetorical response fits a situation is to say that it meets the requirements established by the situation. A situation which is strong and clear dictates purpose, theme, matter, and style of the response. (10)
The exigence and the complex of persons, objects, events and relations which generate rhetorical discourse are located in reality, are objective and publicly observable historic facts in the world we experience, and therefore available for scrutiny by an observer or critic who attends to them. (11)
Rhetorical situations exhibit structures which are simple or complex, and more or less organized. (11)
Rhetorical situations come into existence, then either mature or decay or mature and persist—conceivably some persist indefinitely. (12)
“In the best of all possible worlds,” Bitzer concludes, “there would be communication perhaps, but no rhetoric—since exigencies would nor arise” (13). The rest of the conclusion concerns rhetoric’s philosophical justification.