109-822: The Roof of the World or Top of the World is a metaphoric epithet or phrase used to describe the highest region in the world, also known as High Asia . The term usually refers to the mountainous interior of Asia, including the Pamirs , the Himalayas , the Tibetan Plateau , the Hindu Kush , the Tian Shan , the country of Nepal , and the Altai Mountains . The British explorer John Wood , writing in 1838, described Bam-i-Duniah (Roof of
218-436: A "conduit metaphor." According to this view, a speaker can put ideas or objects into containers and then send them along a conduit to a listener, who removes the object from the container to make meaning of it. Thus, communication is conceptualized as something that ideas flow into, with the container being separate from the ideas themselves. Lakoff and Johnson provide several examples of daily metaphors in use, including "argument
327-481: A characteristic of speech and writing, metaphors can serve the poetic imagination. This allows Sylvia Plath , in her poem "Cut", to compare the blood issuing from her cut thumb to the running of a million soldiers, " redcoats , every one"; and enabling Robert Frost , in "The Road Not Taken", to compare a life to a journey. Metaphors can be implied and extended throughout pieces of literature. Sonja K. Foss characterizes metaphors as "nonliteral comparisons in which
436-589: A civic art of rhetoric, combining the almost incompatible properties of techne and appropriateness to citizens." Each of Aristotle's divisions plays a role in civic life and can be used in a different way to affect the polis . Because rhetoric is a public art capable of shaping opinion, some of the ancients, including Plato found fault in it. They claimed that while it could be used to improve civic life, it could be used just as easily to deceive or manipulate. The masses were incapable of analyzing or deciding anything on their own and would therefore be swayed by
545-437: A common-type metaphor is generally considered more forceful than a simile . The metaphor category contains these specialized types: It is said that a metaphor is 'a condensed analogy' or 'analogical fusion' or that they 'operate in a similar fashion' or are 'based on the same mental process' or yet that 'the basic processes of analogy are at work in metaphor'. It is also pointed out that 'a border between metaphor and analogy
654-415: A comparison that shows how two things, which are not alike in most ways, are similar in another important way. In this context, metaphors contribute to the creation of multiple meanings within polysemic complexes across different languages. Furthermore, Lakoff and Johnson explain that a metaphor is essentially the understanding and experiencing of one kind of thing in terms of another, which they refer to as
763-594: A course of study has evolved since its ancient beginnings, and has adapted to the particular exigencies of various times, venues, and applications ranging from architecture to literature. Although the curriculum has transformed in a number of ways, it has generally emphasized the study of principles and rules of composition as a means for moving audiences. Rhetoric began as a civic art in Ancient Greece where students were trained to develop tactics of oratorical persuasion, especially in legal disputes. Rhetoric originated in
872-576: A good man, a person enlightened on a variety of civic topics. He describes the proper training of the orator in his major text on rhetoric, De Oratore , which he modeled on Plato's dialogues. Modern works continue to support the claims of the ancients that rhetoric is an art capable of influencing civic life. In Political Style , Robert Hariman claims that "questions of freedom, equality, and justice often are raised and addressed through performances ranging from debates to demonstrations without loss of moral content". James Boyd White argues that rhetoric
981-473: A group. This definition of rhetoric as identification broadens the scope from strategic and overt political persuasion to the more implicit tactics of identification found in an immense range of sources . Among the many scholars who have since pursued Burke's line of thought, James Boyd White sees rhetoric as a broader domain of social experience in his notion of constitutive rhetoric . Influenced by theories of social construction , White argues that culture
1090-518: A guide to creating persuasive messages and arguments: Memory was added much later to the original four canons. During the Renaissance rhetoric enjoyed a resurgence, and as a result nearly every author who wrote about music before the Romantic era discussed rhetoric. Joachim Burmeister wrote in 1601, "there is only little difference between music and the nature of oration". Christoph Bernhard in
1199-479: A likeness or an analogy. Analysts group metaphors with other types of figurative language, such as antithesis , hyperbole , metonymy , and simile . “Figurative language examples include “similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, allusions, and idioms.”” One of the most commonly cited examples of a metaphor in English literature comes from the " All the world's a stage " monologue from As You Like It : All
SECTION 10
#17328481376981308-518: A limited field, ignoring many critical applications of rhetorical theory, criticism, and practice. Simultaneously, the neo-Sophists threaten to expand rhetoric beyond a point of coherent theoretical value. In more recent years, people studying rhetoric have tended to enlarge its object domain beyond speech. Kenneth Burke asserted humans use rhetoric to resolve conflicts by identifying shared characteristics and interests in symbols. People engage in identification , either to assign themselves or another to
1417-445: A metaphor as having two parts: the tenor and the vehicle. The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed. In the previous example, "the world" is compared to a stage, describing it with the attributes of "the stage"; "the world" is the tenor, and "a stage" is the vehicle; "men and women" is the secondary tenor, and "players" is the secondary vehicle. Other writers employ
1526-414: A metaphor for understanding. The audience does not need to visualize the action; dead metaphors normally go unnoticed. Some distinguish between a dead metaphor and a cliché . Others use "dead metaphor" to denote both. A mixed metaphor is a metaphor that leaps from one identification to a second inconsistent with the first, e.g.: I smell a rat [...] but I'll nip him in the bud" This form is often used as
1635-447: A metaphor is defined as a semantic change based on a similarity in form or function between the original concept and the target concept named by a word. For example, mouse : "small, gray rodent with a long tail" → "small, gray computer device with a long cord". Some recent linguistic theories hold that language evolved from the capability of the brain to create metaphors that link actions and sensations to sounds. Aristotle discusses
1744-465: A metaphorically related area. Cognitive linguists emphasize that metaphors serve to facilitate the understanding of one conceptual domain—typically an abstraction such as "life", "theories" or "ideas"—through expressions that relate to another, more familiar conceptual domain—typically more concrete, such as "journey", "buildings" or "food". For example: one devours a book of raw facts, tries to digest them, stews over them, lets them simmer on
1853-482: A metonymy relies on pre-existent links within such domains. For example, in the phrase "lands belonging to the crown", the word crown is a metonymy because some monarchs do indeed wear a crown, physically. In other words, there is a pre-existent link between crown and monarchy . On the other hand, when Ghil'ad Zuckermann argues that the Israeli language is a "phoenicuckoo cross with some magpie characteristics", he
1962-404: A parody of metaphor itself: If we can hit that bull's-eye then the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate . An extended metaphor, or conceit, sets up a principal subject with several subsidiary subjects or comparisons. In the above quote from As You Like It , the world is first described as a stage and then the subsidiary subjects men and women are further described in
2071-470: A persuasive speech, were first codified in classical Rome: invention , arrangement , style , memory , and delivery . From Ancient Greece to the late 19th century, rhetoric played a central role in Western education in training orators , lawyers , counsellors, historians , statesmen , and poets . Scholars have debated the scope of rhetoric since ancient times. Although some have limited rhetoric to
2180-404: A positive image, potentially at the expense of suppressing dissent or criticism. An example of this is the government's actions in freezing bank accounts and regulating internet speech, ostensibly to protect the vulnerable and preserve freedom of expression, despite contradicting values and rights. The origins of the rhetoric language begin in Ancient Greece. It originally began by a group named
2289-473: A revival with the rise of democratic institutions during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Hugh Blair was a key early leader of this movement. In his most famous work, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres , he advocates rhetorical study for common citizens as a resource for social success. Many American colleges and secondary schools used Blair's text throughout the 19th century to train students of rhetoric. Political rhetoric also underwent renewal in
SECTION 20
#17328481376982398-521: A school of pre-Socratic philosophers known as the Sophists c. 600 BCE . Demosthenes and Lysias emerged as major orators during this period, and Isocrates and Gorgias as prominent teachers. Modern teachings continue to reference these rhetoricians and their work in discussions of classical rhetoric and persuasion. Rhetoric was taught in universities during the Middle Ages as one of
2507-460: A sociological, cultural, or philosophical perspective, one asks to what extent ideologies maintain and impose conceptual patterns of thought by introducing, supporting, and adapting fundamental patterns of thinking metaphorically. The question is to what extent the ideology fashion and refashion the idea of the nation as a container with borders, and how enemies and outsiders are represented. Some cognitive scholars have attempted to take on board
2616-443: A tool to influence communities from local to national levels. Political parties employ "manipulative rhetoric" to advance their party-line goals and lobbyist agendas. They use it to portray themselves as champions of compassion, freedom, and culture, all while implementing policies that appear to contradict these claims. It serves as a form of political propaganda, presented to sway and maintain public opinion in their favor, and garner
2725-472: A tornado. Based on his analysis, Jaynes claims that metaphors not only enhance description, but "increase enormously our powers of perception...and our understanding of [the world], and literally create new objects". Metaphors are most frequently compared with similes . A metaphor asserts the objects in the comparison are identical on the point of comparison, while a simile merely asserts a similarity through use of words such as like or as . For this reason
2834-653: A word or phrase from one domain of experience is applied to another domain". She argues that since reality is mediated by the language we use to describe it, the metaphors we use shape the world and our interactions to it. The term metaphor is used to describe more basic or general aspects of experience and cognition: Some theorists have suggested that metaphors are not merely stylistic, but are also cognitively important.In Metaphors We Live By , George Lakoff and Mark Johnson argue that metaphors are pervasive in everyday life, not only in language but also in thought and action. A common definition of metaphor can be described as
2943-425: Is "reconstituted" through language. Just as language influences people, people influence language. Language is socially constructed, and depends on the meanings people attach to it. Because language is not rigid and changes depending on the situation, the very usage of language is rhetorical. An author, White would say, is always trying to construct a new world and persuading his or her readers to share that world within
3052-438: Is Epistemic?". In it, he focuses on uncovering the most appropriate definitions for the terms "rhetoric", "knowledge", and "certainty". According to Harpine, certainty is either objective or subjective. Although both Scotts and Cherwitz and Hikins theories deal with some form of certainty, Harpine believes that knowledge is not required to be neither objectively nor subjectively certain. In terms of "rhetoric", Harpine argues that
3161-421: Is a metaphor, coming from a Greek term meaning 'transference (of ownership)'. The user of a metaphor alters the reference of the word, "carrying" it from one semantic "realm" to another. The new meaning of the word might derive from an analogy between the two semantic realms, but also from other reasons such as the distortion of the semantic realm - for example in sarcasm. The English word metaphor derives from
3270-529: Is also known for describing her process of invention in "The Exaltation of Inanna," moving between first- and third-person address to relate her composing process in collaboration with the goddess Inanna, reflecting a mystical enthymeme in drawing upon a Cosmic audience. Later examples of early rhetoric can be found in the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the time of Sennacherib (704–681 BCE ). In ancient Egypt , rhetoric had existed since at least
3379-415: Is an open question whether synesthesia experiences are a sensory version of metaphor, the "source" domain being the presented stimulus, such as a musical tone, and the target domain, being the experience in another modality, such as color. Art theorist Robert Vischer argued that when we look at a painting, we "feel ourselves into it" by imagining our body in the posture of a nonhuman or inanimate object in
Roof of the World - Misplaced Pages Continue
3488-464: Is an overwhelming majority that does support the concept of certainty as a requirement for knowledge , but it is at the definition of certainty where parties begin to diverge. One definition maintains that certainty is subjective and feeling-based, the other that it is a byproduct of justification . The more commonly accepted definition of rhetoric claims it is synonymous with persuasion . For rhetorical purposes, this definition, like many others,
3597-459: Is any coherent organization of experience. For example, we have coherently organized knowledge about journeys that we rely on in understanding life. Lakoff and Johnson greatly contributed to establishing the importance of conceptual metaphor as a framework for thinking in language, leading scholars to investigate the original ways in which writers used novel metaphors and question the fundamental frameworks of thinking in conceptual metaphors. From
3706-468: Is capable not only of addressing issues of political interest but that it can influence culture as a whole. In his book, When Words Lose Their Meaning , he argues that words of persuasion and identification define community and civic life. He states that words produce "the methods by which culture is maintained, criticized, and transformed". Rhetoric remains relevant as a civic art. In speeches, as well as in non-verbal forms, rhetoric continues to be used as
3815-516: Is difficult to define. Political discourse remains the paradigmatic example for studying and theorizing specific techniques and conceptions of persuasion or rhetoric. Throughout European History , rhetoric meant persuasion in public and political settings such as assemblies and courts. Because of its associations with democratic institutions, rhetoric is commonly said to flourish in open and democratic societies with rights of free speech , free assembly, and political enfranchisement for some portion of
3924-496: Is especially used by the fields of marketing, politics, and literature. Another area of rhetoric is the study of cultural rhetorics, which is the communication that occurs between cultures and the study of the way members of a culture communicate with each other. These ideas can then be studied and understood by other cultures, in order to bridge gaps in modes of communication and help different cultures communicate effectively with each other. James Zappen defines cultural rhetorics as
4033-500: Is fuzzy' and 'the difference between them might be described (metaphorically) as the distance between things being compared'. Metaphor is distinct from metonymy , as the two concepts embody different fundamental modes of thought . Metaphor works by bringing together concepts from different conceptual domains, whereas metonymy uses one element from a given domain to refer to another closely related element. A metaphor creates new links between otherwise distinct conceptual domains, whereas
4142-407: Is its own egg. Furthermore, the metaphor magpie is employed because, according to Zuckermann, hybridic Israeli displays the characteristics of a magpie, "stealing" from languages such as Arabic and English . A dead metaphor is a metaphor in which the sense of a transferred image has become absent. The phrases "to grasp a concept" and "to gather what you've understood" use physical action as
4251-655: Is merely a form of flattery and functions similarly to culinary arts , which mask the undesirability of unhealthy food by making it taste good. Plato considered any speech of lengthy prose aimed at flattery as within the scope of rhetoric. Some scholars, however, contest the idea that Plato despised rhetoric and instead view his dialogues as a dramatization of complex rhetorical principles. Aristotle both redeemed rhetoric from his teacher and narrowed its focus by defining three genres of rhetoric— deliberative , forensic or judicial, and epideictic . Yet, even as he provided order to existing rhetorical theories, Aristotle generalized
4360-542: Is no institution devised by man which the power of speech has not helped us to establish." With this statement he argues that rhetoric is a fundamental part of civic life in every society and that it has been necessary in the foundation of all aspects of society. He further argues in Against the Sophists that rhetoric, although it cannot be taught to just anyone, is capable of shaping the character of man. He writes, "I do think that
4469-404: Is powerfully destructive' through the paraphrand of physical and emotional destruction; another person might understand the metaphor as 'Pat can spin out of control'. In the latter case, the paraphier of 'spinning motion' has become the paraphrand 'psychological spin', suggesting an entirely new metaphor for emotional unpredictability, a possibly apt description for a human being hardly applicable to
Roof of the World - Misplaced Pages Continue
4578-521: Is still associated with its political origins. However, even the original instructors of Western speech—the Sophists —disputed this limited view of rhetoric. According to Sophists like Gorgias , a successful rhetorician could speak convincingly on a topic in any field, regardless of his experience in that field. This suggested rhetoric could be a means of communicating any expertise, not just politics. In his Encomium to Helen , Gorgias even applied rhetoric to fiction by seeking, for his amusement, to prove
4687-510: Is the art of persuasion . It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium ) along with grammar and logic / dialectic . As an academic discipline within the humanities , rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or writers use to inform, persuade, and motivate their audiences . Rhetoric also provides heuristics for understanding, discovering, and developing arguments for particular situations. Aristotle defined rhetoric as "the faculty of observing in any given case
4796-521: Is too broad. The same issue presents itself with definitions that are too narrow. Rhetoricians in support of the epistemic view of rhetoric have yet to agree in this regard. Philosophical teachings refer to knowledge as a justified true belief . However, the Gettier Problem explores the room for fallacy in this concept. Therefore, the Gettier Problem impedes the effectivity of the argument of Richard A. Cherwitz and James A. Hikins, who employ
4905-405: Is using metaphor . There is no physical link between a language and a bird. The reason the metaphors phoenix and cuckoo are used is that on the one hand hybridic Israeli is based on Hebrew , which, like a phoenix, rises from the ashes; and on the other hand, hybridic Israeli is based on Yiddish , which like a cuckoo, lays its egg in the nest of another bird, tricking it to believe that it
5014-426: Is war" and "time is money." These metaphors are widely used in various contexts to describe personal meaning. In addition, the authors suggest that communication can be viewed as a machine: "Communication is not what one does with the machine, but is the machine itself." Moreover, experimental evidence shows that "priming" people with material from one area can influence how they perform tasks and interpret language in
5123-551: The Middle Kingdom period ( c. 2080–1640 BCE ). The five canons of eloquence in ancient Egyptian rhetoric were silence, timing, restraint, fluency, and truthfulness. The Egyptians held eloquent speaking in high esteem. Egyptian rules of rhetoric specified that "knowing when not to speak is essential, and very respected, rhetorical knowledge", making rhetoric a "balance between eloquence and wise silence". They also emphasized "adherence to social behaviors that support
5232-402: The justified true belief standpoint in their argument for rhetoric as epistemic . Celeste Condit Railsback takes a different approach, drawing from Ray E. McKerrow's system of belief based on validity rather than certainty . William D. Harpine refers to the issue of unclear definitions that occurs in the theories of "rhetoric is epistemic" in his 2004 article "What Do You Mean, Rhetoric
5341-555: The 16th-century Old French word métaphore , which comes from the Latin metaphora , 'carrying over', and in turn from the Greek μεταφορά ( metaphorá ), 'transference (of ownership)', from μεταφέρω ( metapherō ), 'to carry over, to transfer' and that from μετά ( meta ), 'behind, along with, across' + φέρω ( pherō ), 'to bear, to carry'. The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936) by rhetorician I. A. Richards describes
5450-538: The Athenians did, indeed rely on persuasive speech, more during public speak, and four new political processes, also increasing the sophists trainings leading too many victories for legal cases, public debate, and even a simple persuasive speech. This ultimately led to concerns rising on falsehood over truth, with highly trained, persuasive speakers, knowingly, misinforming. Rhetoric has its origins in Mesopotamia . Some of
5559-464: The Athenians persuasive speech, with the goal of navigating the courts and senate. The sophists became speech teachers known as Sophia; Greek for "wisdom" and root for philosophy, or " love of wisdom" – the sophists came to be common term for someone who sold wisdom for money. Although there is no clear understanding why the Sicilians engaged to educating the Athenians persuasive speech. It is known that
SECTION 50
#17328481376985668-550: The Brain", takes on board the dual problem of conceptual metaphor as a framework implicit in the language as a system and the way individuals and ideologies negotiate conceptual metaphors. Neural biological research suggests some metaphors are innate, as demonstrated by reduced metaphorical understanding in psychopathy. James W. Underhill, in Creating Worldviews: Ideology, Metaphor & Language (Edinburgh UP), considers
5777-587: The Non-Moral Sense . Some sociologists have found his essay useful for thinking about metaphors used in society and for reflecting on their own use of metaphor. Sociologists of religion note the importance of metaphor in religious worldviews, and that it is impossible to think sociologically about religion without metaphor. Archived 19 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine Rhetorician Rhetoric ( / ˈ r ɛ t ə r ɪ k / )
5886-408: The Sophists, who wanted to teach the Athenians to speak persuasively in order to be able to navigate themselves in the court and senate. What inspired this form of persuasive speech came about through a new form of government, known as democracy, that was being experimented with. Consequently people began to fear that persuasive speech would overpower truth. Aristotle however believed that this technique
5995-718: The World) as a "native expression" (presumably Wakhi ), and it was generally used for the Pamirs in Victorian times : In 1876, another British traveler, Sir Thomas Edward Gordon , employed it as the title of a book and wrote in Chapter IX: Older encyclopedias also used "Roof of the World" to describe the Pamirs: With the awakening of public interest in Tibet, the Pamirs, "since 1875 ... probably
6104-427: The assembly decides about future events, a juryman about past events: while those who merely decide on the orator's skill are observers. From this it follows that there are three divisions of oratory—(1) political, (2) forensic, and (3) the ceremonial oratory of display". Eugene Garver, in his critique of Aristotle's Rhetoric , confirms that Aristotle viewed rhetoric as a civic art. Garver writes, " Rhetoric articulates
6213-437: The available means of persuasion", and since mastery of the art was necessary for victory in a case at law, for passage of proposals in the assembly, or for fame as a speaker in civic ceremonies, he called it "a combination of the science of logic and of the ethical branch of politics". Aristotle also identified three persuasive audience appeals: logos , pathos , and ethos . The five canons of rhetoric , or phases of developing
6322-433: The back-burner , regurgitates them in discussions, and cooks up explanations, hoping they do not seem half-baked . A convenient short-hand way of capturing this view of metaphor is the following: Conceptual Domain (A) is Conceptual Domain (B), which is what is called a conceptual metaphor . A conceptual metaphor consists of two conceptual domains, in which one domain is understood in terms of another. A conceptual domain
6431-674: The best explored region in High Asia", went out of the limelight and the description "Roof of the World" has been increasingly applied to Tibet and the Tibetan Plateau , and occasionally, especially in French ( "Toit du monde" ), even to Mount Everest , but the traditional use is still alive. Metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to create
6540-529: The blamelessness of the mythical Helen of Troy in starting the Trojan War . Plato defined the scope of rhetoric according to his negative opinions of the art. He criticized the Sophists for using rhetoric to deceive rather than to discover truth. In Gorgias , one of his Socratic Dialogues , Plato defines rhetoric as the persuasion of ignorant masses within the courts and assemblies. Rhetoric, in Plato's opinion,
6649-471: The city area – the citizens of Athens formed institutions to the red processes: are the Senate, jury trials, and forms of public discussions, but people needed to learn how to navigate these new institutions. With no forms of passing on the information, other than word of mouth the Athenians needed an effective strategy to inform the people. A group of wandering Sicilian's later known as the Sophists , began teaching
SECTION 60
#17328481376986758-425: The context of any language system which claims to embody richness and depth of understanding. In addition, he clarifies the limitations associated with a literal interpretation of the mechanistic Cartesian and Newtonian depictions of the universe as little more than a "machine" – a concept which continues to underlie much of the scientific materialism which prevails in the modern Western world. He argues further that
6867-587: The course of creating fictions through the use of metaphor we can also perceive and manipulate props into new improvised representations of something entirely different in a game of "make-believe". Suddenly the properties of the props themselves take on primary importance. In the process the participants in the game may be only partially conscious of the "prop oriented" nature of the game itself. Metaphors can map experience between two nonlinguistic realms. Musicologist Leonard B. Meyer demonstrated how purely rhythmic and harmonic events can express human emotions. It
6976-427: The creation of metaphors at the end of his Poetics : "But the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars." Baroque literary theorist Emanuele Tesauro defines the metaphor "the most witty and acute, the most strange and marvelous,
7085-539: The definition of rhetoric as "the art of persuasion" is the best choice in the context of this theoretical approach of rhetoric as epistemic. Harpine then proceeds to present two methods of approaching the idea of rhetoric as epistemic based on the definitions presented. One centers on Alston's view that one's beliefs are justified if formed by one's normal doxastic while the other focuses on the causal theory of knowledge. Both approaches manage to avoid Gettier's problems and do not rely on unclear conceptions of certainty. In
7194-432: The definition of rhetoric to be the ability to identify the appropriate means of persuasion in a given situation based upon the art of rhetoric ( technê ). This made rhetoric applicable to all fields, not just politics. Aristotle viewed the enthymeme based upon logic (especially, based upon the syllogism) as the basis of rhetoric. Aristotle also outlined generic constraints that focused the rhetorical art squarely within
7303-440: The development of various imaginative ends. In "content oriented" games, users derive value from such props as a result of the intrinsic fictional content which they help to create through their participation in the game. As familiar examples of such content oriented games, Walton points to putting on a play of Hamlet or "playing cops and robbers". Walton further argues, however, that not all games conform to this characteristic. In
7412-414: The discourses of a wide variety of domains, including the natural and social sciences, fine art, religion, journalism, digital media, fiction, history, cartography , and architecture, along with the more traditional domains of politics and the law. Because the ancient Greeks valued public political participation, rhetoric emerged as an important curriculum for those desiring to influence politics. Rhetoric
7521-418: The discussion of rhetoric and epistemology , comes the question of ethics . Is it ethical for rhetoric to present itself in the branch of knowledge ? Scott rears this question, addressing the issue, not with ambiguity in the definitions of other terms, but against subjectivity regarding certainty . Ultimately, according to Thomas O. Sloane, rhetoric and epistemology exist as counterparts, working towards
7630-423: The division between the Sophists and Aristotle. Neo-Aristotelians generally study rhetoric as political discourse, while the neo-Sophistic view contends that rhetoric cannot be so limited. Rhetorical scholar Michael Leff characterizes the conflict between these positions as viewing rhetoric as a "thing contained" versus a "container". The neo-Aristotelian view threatens the study of rhetoric by restraining it to such
7739-405: The domain of public political practice. He restricted rhetoric to the domain of the contingent or probable: those matters that admit multiple legitimate opinions or arguments. Since the time of Aristotle, logic has changed. For example, modal logic has undergone a major development that also modifies rhetoric. The contemporary neo-Aristotelian and neo-Sophistic positions on rhetoric mirror
7848-553: The earliest examples of rhetoric can be found in the Akkadian writings of the princess and priestess Enheduanna ( c. 2285–2250 BCE ). As the first named author in history, Enheduanna's writing exhibits numerous rhetorical features that would later become canon in Ancient Greece. Enheduanna's "The Exaltation of Inanna ," includes an exordium , argument , and peroration , as well as elements of ethos , pathos , and logos , and repetition and metonymy . She
7957-503: The expanse of implications these words hold. Those who have identified this inconsistency maintain the idea that Scott's relation is important, but requires further study. The root of the issue lies in the ambiguous use of the term rhetoric itself, as well as the epistemological terms knowledge , certainty , and truth . Though counterintuitive and vague, Scott's claims are accepted by some academics, but are then used to draw different conclusions. Sonja K. Foss , for example, takes on
8066-455: The fall of the Roman republic, poetry became a tool for rhetorical training since there were fewer opportunities for political speech. Letter writing was the primary way business was conducted both in state and church, so it became an important aspect of rhetorical education. Rhetorical education became more restrained as style and substance separated in 16th-century France, and attention turned to
8175-432: The formulation of metaphors at the center of a "Game of Make Believe," which is regulated by tacit norms and rules. These "principles of generation" serve to determine several aspects of the game which include: what is considered to be fictional or imaginary, as well as the fixed function which is assumed by both objects and people who interact in the game. Walton refers to such generators as "props" which can serve as means to
8284-403: The general terms ground and figure to denote the tenor and the vehicle. Cognitive linguistics uses the terms target and source , respectively. Psychologist Julian Jaynes coined the terms metaphrand and metaphier , plus two new concepts, paraphrand and paraphier . Metaphrand is equivalent to the metaphor-theory terms tenor , target , and ground . Metaphier is equivalent to
8393-436: The genus, since both old age and stubble are [species of the genus of] things that have lost their bloom." Metaphors, according to Aristotle, have "qualities of the exotic and the fascinating; but at the same time we recognize that strangers do not have the same rights as our fellow citizens". Educational psychologist Andrew Ortony gives more explicit detail: "Metaphors are necessary as a communicative device because they allow
8502-619: The growth of the study of rhetoric in colleges across the United States. Harvard's rhetoric program drew inspiration from literary sources to guide organization and style, and studies the rhetoric used in political communication to illustrate how political figures persuade audiences. William G. Allen became the first American college professor of rhetoric, at New-York Central College , 1850–1853. Debate clubs and lyceums also developed as forums in which common citizens could hear speakers and sharpen debate skills. The American lyceum in particular
8611-407: The horn of my salvation, my stronghold" and "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want". Some recent linguistic theories view all language in essence as metaphorical. The etymology of a word may uncover a metaphorical usage which has since become obscured with persistent use - such as for example the English word " window ", etymologically equivalent to "wind eye". The word metaphor itself
8720-528: The idea that different languages have evolved radically different concepts and conceptual metaphors, while others hold to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis . German philologist Wilhelm von Humboldt contributed significantly to this debate on the relationship between culture, language, and linguistic communities. Humboldt remains, however, relatively unknown in English-speaking nations. Andrew Goatly , in "Washing
8829-448: The idea that rhetoric is concerned with negotiation and listening, not persuasion, which differs from ancient definitions. Some ancient rhetoric was disparaged because its persuasive techniques could be used to teach falsehoods. Communication as studied in cultural rhetorics is focused on listening and negotiation, and has little to do with persuasion. Rhetorical education focused on five canons . The Five Canons of Rhetoric serve as
8938-481: The latter half of the century said "...until the art of music has attained such a height in our own day, that it may indeed be compared to a rhetoric, in view of the multitude of figures" . Epistemology and rhetoric have been compared to one another for decades, but the specifications of their similarities have gone undefined. Since scholar Robert L. Scott stated that, "rhetoric is epistemic ," rhetoricians and philosophers alike have struggled to concretely define
9047-407: The metaphor-theory terms vehicle , figure , and source . In a simple metaphor, an obvious attribute of the metaphier exactly characterizes the metaphrand (e.g. "the ship plowed the seas"). With an inexact metaphor, however, a metaphier might have associated attributes or nuances – its paraphiers – that enrich the metaphor because they "project back" to the metaphrand, potentially creating new ideas –
9156-444: The modes of persuasion: ethos , pathos , and logos ) and trace rhetorical development through history. Rhetoric earned a more esteemed reputation as a field of study with the emergence of Communication Studies departments and of Rhetoric and Composition programs within English departments in universities, and in conjunction with the linguistic turn in Western philosophy . Rhetorical study has broadened in scope, and
9265-540: The most persuasive speeches. Thus, civic life could be controlled by whoever could deliver the best speech. Plato explores the problematic moral status of rhetoric twice: in Gorgias and in The Phaedrus , a dialogue best-known for its commentary on love. More trusting in the power of rhetoric to support a republic, the Roman orator Cicero argued that art required something more than eloquence. A good orator needed also to be
9374-479: The most pleasant and useful, the most eloquent and fecund part of the human intellect ". There is, he suggests, something divine in metaphor: the world itself is God's poem and metaphor is not just a literary or rhetorical figure but an analytic tool that can penetrate the mysteries of God and His creation. Friedrich Nietzsche makes metaphor the conceptual center of his early theory of society in On Truth and Lies in
9483-477: The painting. For example, the painting The Lonely Tree by Caspar David Friedrich shows a tree with contorted, barren limbs. Looking at the painting, some recipients may imagine their limbs in a similarly contorted and barren shape, evoking a feeling of strain and distress. Nonlinguistic metaphors may be the foundation of our experience of visual and musical art, as well as dance and other art forms. In historical onomasiology or in historical linguistics ,
9592-412: The paraphrands – associated thereafter with the metaphrand or even leading to a new metaphor. For example, in the metaphor "Pat is a tornado", the metaphrand is Pat ; the metaphier is tornado . As metaphier, tornado carries paraphiers such as power, storm and wind, counterclockwise motion, and danger, threat, destruction, etc. The metaphoric meaning of tornado is inexact: one might understand that 'Pat
9701-547: The philosophical concept of "substance" or "substratum" has limited meaning at best and that physicalist theories of the universe depend upon mechanistic metaphors which are drawn from deductive logic in the development of their hypotheses. By interpreting such metaphors literally, Turbayne argues that modern man has unknowingly fallen victim to only one of several metaphorical models of the universe which may be more beneficial in nature. In his book In Other Shoes: Music, Metaphor, Empathy, Existence Kendall Walton also places
9810-478: The population. Those who classify rhetoric as a civic art believe that rhetoric has the power to shape communities, form the character of citizens, and greatly affect civic life. Rhetoric was viewed as a civic art by several of the ancient philosophers. Aristotle and Isocrates were two of the first to see rhetoric in this light. In Antidosis , Isocrates states, "We have come together and founded cities and made laws and invented arts; and, generally speaking, there
9919-419: The same context. An implicit metaphor has no specified tenor, although the vehicle is present. M. H. Abrams offers the following as an example of an implicit metaphor: "That reed was too frail to survive the storm of its sorrows". The reed is the vehicle for the implicit tenor, someone's death, and the storm is the vehicle for the person's sorrows. Metaphor can serve as a device for persuading an audience of
10028-532: The same purpose of establishing knowledge , with the common enemy of subjective certainty . Rhetoric is a persuasive speech that holds people to a common purpose and therefore facilitates collective action. During the fifth century BCE, Athens had become active in metropolis and people all over there. During this time the Greek city state had been experimenting with a new form of government – democracy, demos , "the people". Political and cultural identity had been tied to
10137-639: The scientific method. Influential scholars like Peter Ramus argued that the processes of invention and arrangement should be elevated to the domain of philosophy, while rhetorical instruction should be chiefly concerned with the use of figures and other forms of the ornamentation of language. Scholars such as Francis Bacon developed the study of "scientific rhetoric" which rejected the elaborate style characteristic of classical oration. This plain language carried over to John Locke 's teaching, which emphasized concrete knowledge and steered away from ornamentation in speech, further alienating rhetorical instruction—which
10246-454: The specific realm of political discourse , to many modern scholars it encompasses every aspect of culture. Contemporary studies of rhetoric address a much more diverse range of domains than was the case in ancient times. While classical rhetoric trained speakers to be effective persuaders in public forums and in institutions such as courtrooms and assemblies, contemporary rhetoric investigates human discourse writ large . Rhetoricians have studied
10355-553: The study of political discourse can help more than any other thing to stimulate and form such qualities of character." Aristotle, writing several years after Isocrates, supported many of his arguments and argued for rhetoric as a civic art. In the words of Aristotle, in the Rhetoric , rhetoric is "...the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion". According to Aristotle, this art of persuasion could be used in public settings in three different ways: "A member of
10464-453: The text. People engage in rhetoric any time they speak or produce meaning. Even in the field of science , via practices which were once viewed as being merely the objective testing and reporting of knowledge, scientists persuade their audience to accept their findings by sufficiently demonstrating that their study or experiment was conducted reliably and resulted in sufficient evidence to support their conclusions. The vast scope of rhetoric
10573-464: The three original liberal arts or trivium (along with logic and grammar ). During the medieval period, political rhetoric declined as republican oratory died out and the emperors of Rome garnered increasing authority. With the rise of European monarchs, rhetoric shifted into courtly and religious applications. Augustine exerted strong influence on Christian rhetoric in the Middle Ages, advocating
10682-438: The transfer of coherent chunks of characteristics -- perceptual, cognitive, emotional and experiential – from a vehicle which is known to a topic which is less so. In so doing they circumvent the problem of specifying one by one each of the often unnameable and innumerable characteristics; they avoid discretizing the perceived continuity of experience and are thus closer to experience and consequently more vivid and memorable." As
10791-416: The use of rhetoric to lead audiences to truth and understanding, especially in the church. The study of liberal arts, he believed, contributed to rhetorical study: "In the case of a keen and ardent nature, fine words will come more readily through reading and hearing the eloquent than by pursuing the rules of rhetoric." Poetry and letter writing became central to rhetorical study during the Middle Ages. After
10900-535: The user's argument or thesis, the so-called rhetorical metaphor. Aristotle writes in his work the Rhetoric that metaphors make learning pleasant: "To learn easily is naturally pleasant to all people, and words signify something, so whatever words create knowledge in us are the pleasantest." When discussing Aristotle's Rhetoric , Jan Garret stated "metaphor most brings about learning; for when [Homer] calls old age "stubble", he creates understanding and knowledge through
11009-519: The view that metaphors may also be described as examples of a linguistic "category mistake" which have the potential of leading unsuspecting users into considerable obfuscation of thought within the realm of epistemology. Included among them is the Australian philosopher Colin Murray Turbayne . In his book The Myth of Metaphor , Turbayne argues that the use of metaphor is an essential component within
11118-483: The view that, "rhetoric creates knowledge," whereas James Herrick writes that rhetoric assists in people's ability to form beliefs , which are defined as knowledge once they become widespread in a community. It is unclear whether Scott holds that certainty is an inherent part of establishing knowledge , his references to the term abstract. He is not the only one, as the debate's persistence in philosophical circles long predates his addition of rhetoric. There
11227-487: The wake of the U.S. and French revolutions. The rhetorical studies of ancient Greece and Rome were resurrected as speakers and teachers looked to Cicero and others to inspire defenses of the new republics. Leading rhetorical theorists included John Quincy Adams of Harvard , who advocated the democratic advancement of rhetorical art. Harvard's founding of the Boylston Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory sparked
11336-729: The way individual speech adopts and reinforces certain metaphoric paradigms. This involves a critique of both communist and fascist discourse. Underhill's studies are situated in Czech and German, which allows him to demonstrate the ways individuals are thinking both within and resisting the modes by which ideologies seek to appropriate key concepts such as "the people", "the state", "history", and "struggle". Though metaphors can be considered to be "in" language, Underhill's chapter on French, English and ethnolinguistics demonstrates that language or languages cannot be conceived of in anything other than metaphoric terms. Several other philosophers have embraced
11445-409: The world is a stage, Shakespeare uses points of comparison between the world and a stage to convey an understanding about the mechanics of the world and the behavior of the people within it. In the ancient Hebrew psalms (around 1000 B.C.), one finds vivid and poetic examples of metaphor such as, "The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and
11554-428: The world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances And one man in his time plays many parts, His Acts being seven ages. At first, the infant... — William Shakespeare , As You Like It , 2/7 This quotation expresses a metaphor because the world is not literally a stage, and most humans are not literally actors and actresses playing roles. By asserting that
11663-445: Was an art, and that persuasive speech could have truth and logic embedded within it. In the end, rhetoric speech still remained popular and was used by many scholars and philosophers. The study of rhetoric trains students to speak and/or write effectively, and to critically understand and analyze discourse. It is concerned with how people use symbols, especially language, to reach agreement that permits coordinated effort. Rhetoric as
11772-460: Was identified wholly with such ornamentation—from the pursuit of knowledge. In the 18th century, rhetoric assumed a more social role, leading to the creation of new education systems (predominantly in England): " Elocution schools" in which girls and women analyzed classic literature, most notably the works of William Shakespeare , and discussed pronunciation tactics. The study of rhetoric underwent
11881-467: Was seen as both an educational and social institution, featuring group discussions and guest lecturers. These programs cultivated democratic values and promoted active participation in political analysis. Throughout the 20th century, rhetoric developed as a concentrated field of study, with the establishment of rhetorical courses in high schools and universities. Courses such as public speaking and speech analysis apply fundamental Greek theories (such as
#697302