aristotle

March 7, 2025

The Political Rhetor and the Future. 6.2.a. The Poor.

To help you navigate political rhetoric. *updated from June 2020 for readability and to ensure active links See 6.1 Intro here. I’ve broken The Political Rhetor and the Future into: 6.2.a. The Poor; 6.2.b. Children; and, Future Generations 6.2.c.i. , 6.2.c.ii, & 6.2.c.iii. Subsequent posts in this series are: 6.3. Attainability of Ends; 6.4. Warnings; Continue reading

Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

analyses, aristotle, class, Clinton, concepts, future, Malthus, Obama, oratory, perlocutionary, Philosophy, political, politics, poor, poverty, rhetoric, speeches, the poor, Trump, underclass
August 23, 2024

The Right(eous)ness of the Wronged: A Powerful Tool of Persuasion.

Righteous anger motivates personal crusades just as it does a march of thousands, even hundreds of thousands. *Herein, I use rhetor, orator speaker and writer interchangeably. Likewise for the words hearer, audience, judger, and reader. An overview of what Aristotle means by rhetoric and some of its features is helpful here. Aristotle defines rhetoric as, Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

anger, aristotle, campaign, emotion, ethos, God, good, harris, Hobbes, injustice, justice, karma, oratory, pathos, persuasion, Philosophy, political, politics, revenge, rhetoric, right, righteous, speaker, Trump
June 29, 2024

Dissoi Logoi (cf Aristotle), the Devil’s Advocate (Mill), and comments.

Way, way back in the day — a couple millennia ago — students receiving a classical education would have learned the necessity of Dissoi Logoi to constructing their arguments. That is, they’d throw themselves full throttle into an opposing or contradictory position to their own. And while Aristotle invented neither the method nor the term, Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

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June 28, 2024

Whenever two people “desire the same thing[s]” … compare Aristotle and Hobbes.

I present the following two quotes (Aristotle and Hobbes, respectively) for comparison, without analysis. Aristotle Book II, Chapter IV Friendship and Enmity, 1381b 15 And [we also feel friendly] towards those who are like ourselves in character and occupation, providing they do not get in the way or gain their living from the same source Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric

aristotle, co-operation, competition, desire, Hobbes, negotiation, Philosophy, policy, political, rhetoric, war
April 9, 2021

Hume on Persuasion.

In On War Carl Von Clausewitz says war is a continuation of politics by other means. Or cf. Foucault, who suggests this definition might be the inverted: politics is a continuation of war by other means. My interest is in the ‘other means’, which include political rhetoric. Broadly defined, rhetoric is “the power of observing the means Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric

aristotle, Hume, oratory, political, politics, rhetoric, Von Clausewitz, war
April 7, 2021

Some Problems with Complaisance.

If something doesn’t bother me, e.g. the F-word, why should I be bothered that it bothers you? Let’s start with friendship. As Aristotle notes, “[Friends are] those with whom we are on such terms that, while we respect their opinions, we need not blush before them for doing what is conventionally wrong…” (Aristotle. Rhetoric. Trans. Continue reading

Philosophy, Social and Political Commentary

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March 4, 2021

Why is Revenge Sweet?

I can’t imagine there’s a saint among us who’s never wished for a snappy comeback to an insult, never brooded on this failure of words, and never delighted by reimagining herself the victor when she finds them. If only I said … Ha! That would have been ssooooo good! Next time I’ll be ready. It’s Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric

aristotle, cosmic justice, fantasy, function, Hugo, Hume, indignation, insult, just desserts, justice, palliation, pleasant, revenge, righteous, schadenfreude, sweet, unpleasant
November 15, 2020

A meditation on the character of a political speaker and, by extension, a voter (Oct. 31/20 with Nov. 15/20 addendum)

Loosely put, rhetoric is the art of persuasion. More specifically, on Aristotle’s definition, rhetoric is “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” We all use rhetoric to convince others of some thing or other, but some of us are more skilled than others to this end. Some become especially Continue reading

Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

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October 10, 2020

Saturday Morning Pam-toons. Plato’s Tent Revival. (scroll down)

The Light of Pure Reason ‘Well, that is what I call the child of the good’, I said. ‘The good has begotten it in its own likeness, and it bears the same relation to sight and visible objects in the visible realm that the good bears to intelligence and intelligible objects in the intelligible realm.’ Continue reading

Pam-Toons

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August 8, 2020

Aristotle and Pam on The Political Rhetor. Series. 6.1. Intro.

I’ve already published 6.2.a. The Poor, 6.2. b. Children, and 6.2.c.i. Future Generations. So this intro is out of chronological order. The most important concept for political rhetoric is the “perlocutionary speech act” as described below. “The political orator* aims at establishing the expediency** or the harmfulness of a proposed course of action; if he Continue reading

Political Rhetoric

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