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Mind-boggling Biblical Burke

 Burke’s readings were particularly interesting to me, both because he examined things like “the rhetoric of witchcraft” and Darwinism and Biblical rhetoric and because of his concept of terministic screens.  While I’m still not entirely sure that I got…

(Re)Defining Rhetoric

Based on the readings for the week, it seems to me that the 20th century recovery of rhetoric is about defining what is entailed when we talk about rhetoric.  Not necessarily satisfied with the way rhetoric was being treated, intellectuals…

Puzzles of philosophers

I am dazzled after reading Sutra and Rushd and wordless to express my thoughts. The readings appear to be just an argument for the sake of an argument. One thing can never be denied that every effect has its cause,…

Creating a “New” Rhetoric

I completely agree with what Joel has written about the sense of caring and sharing in the Nyaya rhetorical perspective.  It appears that within that system of dialogue and debate, the goal is to come to a common understanding of…

Socrates on rhetoric

The Socratic Dialogue is an interesting reading about the definition and use of rhetoric. In my opinion rhetoric is the game of words; an artificer of persuasion that creates belief about just among the masses. The rhetoricians convince men that…

Exhibit A: Irony.

In Plato’s “Gorgias,” the rhetorician Gorgias is answering questions freely about his profession, and the philosopher Socrates approaches with plenty of questions to ask, ones about what the art of rhetoric is, whether it is in fact an art, and…

Where’s My Toga?

Time to break out the white sheets and sling them over our shoulders to create togas. The only way to truly understand Greek philosophers like Plato and Isocrates is to become one of them…and even then it gets difficult. When…