Team Ayeee Lesson Plan 2.25

Kenneth Burke (Emily)

Big ideas:

• “His views of literature as “symbolic action,” where language and human agency combine” (Encyclopedia Britannica)
• Context of bigger picture of literature
• Terministic screens – “Also, many of the ‘observations’ are but implications of the particular terminology in terms of which the observations are made” (Terministic Screens)

Advancement in rhetoric:

• Context and taking outside forces into account when reading work
• “symbolic action”
• Writers as citizens and citizens as writers? (“…critical audiences and speakers who are self-conscious….users of language” Kastely from Clark’s piece)

Links/Resources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kenneth-Burke

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Burke

Chaim Perelman (Lakela)

-Polish philosopher born in Warsaw, Poland (1934) and PhD (1938)

Rhetoric: Philosophy is a form of rhetoric (system of argument) used to win over audience rather than a search for truth (Bizzell and Herzberg 1067)

Context: First publication on justice using empiricism in 1945 but had ignorance of rhetoric. In 1948, he began ten-year study with collaborator, Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca on “how people reason about values” (Bizzell and Herzberg 1066) revealed results that showed arguments similar to Artistotelian logic (Perelman 1390). As a result, the two scholars sought to “ ‘revive’ ” stance on rhetoric and dialectic model and connected rhetoric to philosophy (Bizzell and Herzberg 1066).

Rhetoric follows practice reasoning, or informal logic, similar to Aristotelian dialectic in these ways:

-Analytic philosophy (formal logic, like math and science)

-Dialectic and rhetoric (informal logic as all else)

Rhetoric allows for the opportunity to win over an audience; focuses on moving audience from premise (already accepted by them) to conclusion. Presence (foregrounding) created via the topics (Bizzell and Herzberg 1067)

Communicated to search for logical value judgments. The immediate effect was that it showed that argument in philosophy does not follow formal logic, similar to Aristotelian dialectic. The long-term effect was that it challenged Western tradition’s views about rhetoric—adherence of audience not about their acceptance of truth but their movement of premise to conclusion with orator’s argument. We know this based on the cyclical history of effective orators (Mary Tudor, Willie Lynch, Hitler, Fidel Castro, Jim Jones, Donald Trump).

Superpowers: Logos, quasi -logical argument, idea of “presence” (through topics)

Disagrees with Descartes, Ramus for these reasons:

-Ramus moved dialectic to realm of logic and limited rhetoric to verbal communication, which complicated other philosophers’ application of truth to questions of value and behavior

-Descartes declared what was simply possible lacked truth (Bizzell and Herzberg 1066)

Would likely clash with Locke, who believed “true” knowledge was possible. However, he along with Locke, believed that language was complex, because it was not universal. Sounds like Perelman favors a sociological (dialogical) model?

Richard Weaver (Yvonne)

Rhetoric – An American scholar who was a Professor of English at the University of Chicago from 1945 until his death in 1963

Context –

The Ethics of Rhetoric, one of his best-known works, was published in 1953, as was his other well-known work, Ideas have Consequences.

Weaver was important to rhetoricians of the 20th century, as a key figure on modern rhetoric.

He was an exceptional teacher at the University of Chicago, and left a lasting impression on people

He started by embracing socialism, but eventually shifted over to Agrarianism over some years

Rhetorically, he focused on language, metaphors, and poetry and rhetoric

Robert Nietzsche (Zac)

Nietzche focuses on the ideas of truth, and of language as a tool of definition but not creation

Big Ideas

• Truth is subjective, and in linguistic terms informed by
  • When they’re spoken,
  • Who has said them,
  • The intentions of the speaker
• Truth cannot be quantified/measured/defined
• Language works in much the same way to Niet.
• Words, and language, don’t necessarily correlate to reality (either when they’re spoken or in universal terms)
  • These universal terms relate to the morality of what is said

Impact/Advancements

• Consider (sort of) a father of Post modernism
• Seems to correlate with Perelman’s view of rhetoric
• Questions what can be “known” as “true.”