Virtues and Vices of Omission

• In Event: Civic Lessons on Ethics and Virtue in a Contested World

Abstract

Brevity (brevitas), as defined by ancient rhetoricians, means much more than using few words instead of many. It indicates a human excellence, a virtue—in this case, a virtue designating a fundamental feature of excellent communication. On either side of this virtue lurks vice: obscurity at one extreme, prolixity at the other. Brevitas dwells between the two extremes, in the golden mean of effective communication. To acquire this virtue, one must study not only in-vention but out-vention: the fine art of omission.

Author

• Russel K. Hirst, Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville