ENGL 1102 Lecture Notes - Kenneth Burke, Empiricism, Pathos
Document Summary
In ancient greece & rome, citizens focused on making decisions, resolving disputes, and mediating public discussion of important issues: rhetoric = citizenship. Disagreement is universal among all citizens as rhetoric brings us to a decision, whether it be clear-cut and dry or still full of discrepancies. The problem of perception: theory: cognition, consciousness & self-consciousness, kenneth burke: if people didn"t disagree, rhetoric wouldn"t be possible. Rhetoric is used to explain one"s viewpoint on a wide array of topics that are relevant to the given medium of conversation. : kw: invention: finding and displaying the available arguments on any issue. Rhetoric is productive arguments and intelligent discourse: for it to occur, people must be open to new ideas & beliefs. (it also represents a purely democratic society. ) Rhetoric & power: rhetoric is used to distribute the power that resides in language among all of its students. People who study rhetoric can use it to its best means.
