rhetoric

April 30, 2021

The Lesser Known Logical Fallacies.

If you’ve ever taken a logic and critical thinking course, you’ll have learned about logical fallacies. Logical fallacies are patterns of bad reasoning that occur so often they’re given their own special names. Ad hominem arguments are directed at the person holding a position rather than at the position she holds. Ad populum or ‘bandwagon’ Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric

argument, behaviour, critical thinking, fallacy, logic, logical fallacies, logicians, Philosophy, psychology, reasoning, rhetoric, social, strategy
April 30, 2021

Thought experiment: the last humans. (Thoughtlets. XL.)

Thought experiment. Imagine some cosmic event renders all humans sterile. After a number of decades pass, humankind literally enters a Golden Age, with an exclusively senior population. Although, ‘senior’ might lose its current meaning when the youngest among us is 64. I wonder if those in good health will resent the burden of care imposed Continue reading

Philosophy, Thoughtlets

ageing, childhood, death, end of world, end times, environment, existential, human, meaning, population, rhetoric, senior, survival, sustainable, thought experiment
April 28, 2021

Thoughlets. XLIV.

Do you ever wonder what future generations will look like? Look in a mirror. You are the future generations of those who lived before you. And do you ever wonder what future future generations will think of you and your ilk? Well, since you are a future generation, and since, cf Hume, the future resembles Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Thoughtlets

children, descendents, empathy, environment, fore-bearers, future, future generations, generations, hypothetical, imagination, inference, judge, life, material conditions, mirror, myth, past, Philosophy, political, politics, prediction, present, relfection, rhetoric, subsist, sustainability
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
February 21, 2021

R.e.s.p.e.c.t. What does it mean and why should I care?

In my youth, my dad often gave me the following advice. Respect your elders, but don’t take any shit. I took Dad to mean that there is a mutual component to respect, that my respecting my elders didn’t give them license to abuse me. Even youth are due a modicum of respect. In this light, Continue reading

Political Rhetoric

audience, communication, connotations, context, diplomacy, disrespect, ethics, indexical, judge, masses, meaning, noble, oratory, political, politics, respect, rhetoric, sentiments, speech, value, wobbly, word
January 12, 2021

‘Freedom’ is Not a Well-Formed Formula

Freedom! is a common rallying cry that some pledge to fight to the death to defend. And do. So it might be a tad unseemly to point out that ‘freedom’ is not a well-formed formula. By which is meant ‘freedom’ requires an indexical, as in freedom-to and freedom-from. And then to-what and from-what or from-whom, Continue reading

Philosophy

analyses, analysis, battle cry, Braveheart, deliberation, equality, freedom, Gibson, Hume, justice, Liberty, logic, meaning, Philosophy, rally, rhetoric, troops
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

aristotle, armagedon, Biden, character, dark, election, ethos, evil, extreme, foreign, good, goodness, interference, light, logos, media, pathos, rhetoric, Trump, truth, Von Clausewitz, war
November 5, 2020

Understanding Political Rhetoric and How It Works With Our Mental states to Persuade or Dissuade

Rhetoric is, broadly put, the art of persuasion. Whether we’re aware of it or not, we’re all persuaded by rhetorical tactics and use them ourselves to persuade others. Some people find this notion unconscionable, as if there is some cognitive and/or character defect involved in persuading or being persuaded. There isn’t. Others think they’re immune Continue reading

Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

anxiety, assumptions, cognition, emotion, examine, fallacies, fear, hope, humility, rhetoric, speeches, Thinking, unexamined
October 31, 2020

Thoughtlets .xxv.

If you like something a political speaker has said or the way she’s said it, ask yourself who her target audience is and whether you are a member. If so, remember the politician is soliciting your vote. It would not go amiss to slow down and inspect her wares for incorrigible defects, a most difficult Continue reading

Thoughtlets

bias, critcize, critic, deliberate, discern, emotion, inspection, judge, oratory, partisan, perspective, politician, politics, prejudice, rhetoric, scrutiny, slow, sophism, sophist, speech, think
September 28, 2020

Thoughtlets .xviii.

Words such as ‘matters’, ‘dangerous’, and even ‘good’, require an indexical, by which is meant these words require a to or a for. Once you flesh in the indexical you open questions such as why, how, and so what? Some don’t think to ask these questions, others don’t want them asked. Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Thoughtlets

advocacy, dangerous, discourse, good, harmful, index, indexed, indexical, logic, matters, Philosophy, politics, public, rhetoric, WFF