Rhetoric, Philosophers, Ideologies

Tolstoy

• people most want for themselves and their actions to appear just

• man’s need to deceive himself

• people suppress their conscience with drugs

• man is spiritual and animal

• bend conscience to fit life

Plato

• our nature is enlightened or unenlightened

• we are prisoners in our body and mind

• humans know nothing

• difficult to reacclimatize to light

• becoming enlightened through education

• anthropology: body and mind

• problem: ignorant

• by learning enlightenment —>

• soterio/teleo: be fully rational humans

Augustine

• first person

• nature of man does not really have a moral compass

• love and lust are the same

• cannot heard God/senseless

• people only care about outward appearance

• happiness is a result of intoxication

• God is how we are saved

• we like sin for the feeling on sin

• soul seeks its own distruction

Rousseau

• humans=animals

• equality in nature —> survival of the fittest

• we have become reliant on tools

• animals are free agents, humans are not

• social skills more important than survival

• supreme happiness=someone else’s despair

• inequality is unnatural

Hobbes

• no man is invincible/all humans are vulnerable to other humans

• education does not equal wisdom

• when it comes to peoples’ minds, there is not much of a difference

• people will fight to the death under the circumstances

• only security is provided by one’s self

• lack of trust will make you untrustworthy first

Anthropology

• asks: what does it mean to be human? what makes humans different from animals? what traits do all human beings share?

• the study of human beings

• deals with the origin of man, the nature of being human, culture, and human relationships

Cosmology

• asks: where did the physical world come from? has the universe always existed or did it begin at a certain point? how? why? is the universe only composed of matter and energy, or is there a spiritual realm as well?

• studies the origin and structure of the universe

Epistemology

• asks: what is truth? how do we know what the difference between what is true and false? what are the different ways which we can know somethinf?

• seeks to understand the nature and source of knowledge

• tries to find the limits (if any) of knowledge while determining its soundness

Axiology

• asks: what do we value? how do these values shape what we believe to be right and wrong? how do we determine the difference between good and evil?

• deals with values, ethics, religion, and judgment

• questions the idea of worth or value, what is rights or wrong, and how we determine right and wrong

Theology

• asks: does God exist? who or what is God? what is God like?

• studies religion, faith, and spiritual experience

• questions the existence of a god ad that god’s potential role in the world

Sociology

• asks: what is the structure of human society? how do social groups change the way people behave? why? why do people form societies?

• deals with society’s development, structure, and origin

• attempts to understand the collective behavior of organized groups

Soteriology

• asks: what is humanity’s essential problem? is there a solution to that problem? where can humans find ultimate salvation? from what?

• tries to understand different methods and types of salvation

Teleology

• asks what is our purpose in life? how do. we determine or discover our purpose in life? does each person hav a unique purpose in life, or is there a general purpose that all humans share?

• the study of inherent purpose (assuming that there is one) of man, the world, etc.

Personification

figurative

• metaphorically represents an animal or inanimate object as having human attributes—attributes of form, character, feelings, behavior, etc. ideas can also be personified

Ex.

• “… A tree that looks at God all day, and lifts her leafy arms to pray, a tree that may in Summer wear a nest of robins in her hair…” - Joyce Kilmer

• “I wandered lonely as a cloud (…) fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” -Wordsworth

Apostrophe

figurative

• a writer or a speaker addresses someone or something that obviously cannot respond in order to indicate the addressee’s importance or significance or as a means of rhetorically delivering inner thoughts as if it were a dialogue

Ex.

• “O, happy dagger! This is thy sheath, thus let me rust and die.” - Shakespeare

• “Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again.” - Simon and Garfunkel

Allusion

figurative

• a short, informal reference to something such as a historical or fictional character, event, place; a religious or mythological story, or a literary work; often used to pack a great deal of meaning into a single word or phrase

Ex.

• “His smile was like kryptonite to all he encountered.”

• “Math ended up being the Achilles heel to my overall GPA.”

• “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.” -MLK

Metaphor

figurative

• compares two different things by speaking of one in terms of the other, asserting that one thing is the other thing

Ex.

• “A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are but wind.” -Shakespeare

• “Handsome, you’re a mansion with a view.” -T. Swift

• “She’s doing a bit of a tight-rope walk with her grades this semester.”

Simile

figurative

• compares two different things that resemble each other in at least one way. a simile comparing a noun to a noun uses “like or “than”; a simile comparing a verb or phrase to a verb or phrase uses “as”

Ex.

• “She dealt with moral problems as a cleavers deals with meat.” - James Joyce

• “Without warning, Lionel gave one of his tight little sneezes: it sounded like a built fired through a silencer.” - Amis

Metonymy

figurative

• a type of metaphor that uses something closely associated with (but not a part of) a subject in order to represent that subject

Ex.

• “The White House declined to comment.”

• I’ve known her since the cradle.”

Synecdoche

figurative

• a form of metonymy in which a part acts as a substitute for a whole

Ex.

• “His eye met hers as she sat there paler and whiter than anyone. in the vast ocean of anxious faces about her.” - Frank R Stockton

• “Surveying the “92 Dodge Dakota, Jake chided, “Hey, nice wheels, freshman.”

Understatement

emphasis

• the deliberate expression of an idea as less important that is actually is, either for ironic emphasis (with a touch of humor) or for politeness

Ex.

• [a soldier is asked how he feels after his led has been amputated]: “Well, I’ll admit that it stings a bit.”

• [the pilot speaks over the intercom]: “Ladies and gentleman, we have a small problem: the engines currently aren’t working so were going to be touching down real soon.”

Polysyndeton

emphasis

• The deliberate use of multiple, repeating conjunctions between each word, phrase, or clause; structurally the opposite of asyndeton

Ex.

• “If there be cords or knives, poison or fire or suffocating streams, I’ll not endure it.” - Shakespeare

Asyndeton

emphasis

• the strategy of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses in a list

Ex.

• “Are all they conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, shrunk to this little measure?” - Shakespeare

Hyperbole

emphasis

• deliberate exaggeration of conditions for emphasis or effect

Ex.

• “I am so hungry I could eat a horse!”

• “I love to the moon and back!”

• It’s so hot in here that I might as well be walking on the sun.”

Climax

emphasis

• a list of increases by degree in importance, weight, or magnitude

Ex.

• “let every man acknowledge his obligations to himself, his family, his country, and his God.”

• “and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world.” - Obama

Irony

emphasis

• a statement whose hidden meaning is different from its surface meaning; a conclusion opposite from expectation

dramatic - verbal - situational

Dramatic Irony

emphasis

• When the audience knows something that the characters don’t

Ex.

• “Dead art though! Alack, my child is dead, and with my child my joys are buried.” - Shakespeare

Verbal Irony

emphasis

• saying one thing but meaning something else

Ex.

• “Yeah, Quirrell was a great teacher. There was just that minor drawback of him having Lord Voldemort sticking out of the back of his head!” - JK Rowling

Situational Irony

emphasis

• expecting one thing to happen but getting something else

Ex.

• Water, water, everywhere, and all the boards did shrink; water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” -Coleridge

• ‘Facebook is currently flooded with articles on how social media is poisoning. our ability to engage in healthy social discourse”

Metanoia

emphasis

• the act of correcting one’s self to create rhetorical affect

Ex.

• “I’d like to propose a toast to Ben, my best man—I would even say the best many that any of us know.”

• “The room was so tense that you could hear a pin fall—maybe even a feather.”

Aposiopesis

emphasis

• breaking off a statement midway in order to create a rhetorical effect

Ex.

• “The prosecutor mourned into the jury’s eyes with one final statement: ‘Without a second thought, he walked in and…that’s what you’re here to convict today.”

• If you want to risk it, be my guest, but if I were you…”

Erotema

emphasis

• a rhetorical question: a question that does not call for an answer and actually makes a statement

Ex.

• “How could you be so idiotic?”

• “How can segregation exist in the true body of Christ?” - MLK

Praeteritio

emphasis

• calling attention to a point by seeming to dismiss or ignore it

Ex.

• “I would never resort to calling my opponent a flaming tire fire of ethical contradictions. I believe this debate should be argued on the merits of our policies alone.”

Procatalepsis

transition

• anticipates an objection that might be raised by and responds to it

Ex.

• “I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too.” - Queen Elizabeth I

• “I know that some people say the idea of a Law of Nature or decent behavior known to all men is unsound, because different civilizations and different ages have had quite different moralities, but this is not true.” - CS Lewis

Metabasis

transition

• a brief statement of what has. been said and what will follow; a transitional summary that links sections of writing together

Ex.

• “Now that I have made this catalogue of swindles and perversions, let me give another example of the kind of writing that they lead to.” - Orwell

Hypophora

transition

• asks one or more questions and then proceeds to answer those questions typically the question is asked at the beginning of the paragraph and then answered throughout the rest of it.

Ex.

• “What isa historical fact? This is a crucial question which we must look a little more closely…” - EH Carr

Parallelism

balance

• the repetition of grammatical structures

Ex.

• “Let every nation know whether it wished us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.” -JFK

• “As Ceasar loved me, I weep for him;…as he was valiant, I honor him: but he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears for his love; joys for his fortune; honor for his valor, and death for his ambition.” - Shakespeare

Tricolon

balance

• a sentence with three clearly define parts of equal length

Ex.

• “I came; I saw: I conquered.” - Shakespeare

• “…a government of the people, by the people, for the people.” - Lincoln

Chiasmus

balance

• an inversion of grammatical structure, idea, or sound

Ex.

• “I shot at him as he at me.” - Thomas Hardy

• “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” - JFK

• “Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new…” -Milton

Antithesis

balance

• contrasting ideas expressed in parallel form

Ex.

• “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” - Alexander Pope

• “Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.” - John Milton

Epistrophe

repetition

• repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the end __X __X

Ex.

• The time for healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divides us has come.” -Mandela

Anaphora

repetition

• a repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning X__ X__

Ex.

• “We are the hope of those boys who have little; who’ve been told that they cannot have what they dream…We are the hope of the father who works before dawn (…) We are the hope of the woman who hears that her city will not be rebuilt.” - Obama

Epanalepsis

repetition

• the use of the same word or phrase at the beginning and end of a sentence X_____X

Ex.

• “Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius.” - Shakespeare

• “It will have blood, they say. Blood will have blood.” - Shakespeare

• “I might, unhappy word, O me, I might.” -Sidney

Epizeuxis

repetition

• the consecutive repetition of a word, often in a pattern of three X,X,X____

Ex.

• There are three things that matter in property: location, location, location.” - Lord Harold Samuel

• “Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?” - Shakespeare

• “No, no, no life! (…) Never, never, never, never!” - Shakespeare

Anadiplosis

repetition

• repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the end of one phrase or clause and at the beginning of the next ____X, X____

Ex.

• “When I give, I give myself.” -Walt Whitman

• “At six o’clock we were waiting for coffee, waiting for coffee and the the charitable crumb.” - Elizabeth Bishop

Polyptoton

repetition

• the repetition of the same root word, but in different forms

Ex.

• “Love is not love which alters when it altercation finds, or bends with the remover to remove…” - Shakespeare

Ellipsis

syntax

• the omission of a word easily supplied

Ex.

• “Some people go to priests; others to to poetry; I, to my friends.” -Woolf

• “Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity, a greater.” - Hazlitt

• “I shot at him as he at me.” - Thomas Hardy

Anastrophe

syntax

• when words appear in unexpected order

Ex.

• “Ten thousand saw I at a glance.” - Wordsworth

• “Judge me by my size, do you?'“ - Yoda

Anthimeria

syntax

• using one part of speech as another

Ex.

• “The thunder would not peace at my bidding.” - Shakespeare

• “You’ve been lying for a while now, so I think it’s high time you started truthing.”

• “Spread the happy” - Nutella

Syllepsis

syntax

• terms linked (typically by a verb) in different sense of the meaning of the word (most often literal; the other, figurative)

Ex.

• “He grabbed his hat from the rack and a kiss from his wife.”

• Ana, upon meeting her boss, stumbled first over the threshold and then over her words.”