‽istis reclaims rhetoric (weekending February 13th
2021)
‽istis, ponders the art of ‘making
a case’ and wonders (somewhat existentially - with ‘skin in the game’, as cousins
across the pond might say - given the apparent meaning/s of pistis[i]) whether there was ever a
time when
·
the power of argument, the deployment of loaos (stats, facts,
authoritative statements); pathos (appeals based on emotion, sympathy, pity,
anger); ethos (a speaker and their words having intrinsic credibility and
weight); kairos (timeliness, the time has come for a particular idea or action)[ii]
·
persuasion or the winning over of minds and (Valentine’s Day) hearts
…ever really prevailed and led the process,
decisions and judgements in the courts of civil, criminal, governmental,
senatorial or natural ‘law’…?
But perhaps this week we have indeed heard
and seen the use of various rhetorical devices[iii]:
‽ cacophony: a combination of sounds to create a
displeasing effect?
‽ humour: used to increase the ‘likelihood
of agreement; used to deflate counter-arguments; to induce ridicule through
ridiculousnessing[iv]?
‽ anaphora: ‘I
have a dream’; ‘Stop the steal’? –other contrasting examples are probably
available?
‽ hyperbole: UK government’s ‘world
beating’; ‘the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country’[v]?
‽ apophasis: bringing up a subject by
denying that the subject should be brought up
‽ entrepisms: points in the form of a
list
‽ hypophora: posing a question and then immediately
supplying the answer (Is hypophora a
useful rhetorical device? Yes… Am I
going to explain it further? No…)
‽ expedito: providing a series of
possibilities – explaining why just one is possible
But after the talk, the presentation of film clips (and
their sometime cacophonous compilation) - the rhetoric meets burdens of proof,
reality not mythology: ‘on the balance of probabilities’ (UK civil courts); ‘beyond
reasonable doubt’ (in UK criminal courts) and, in a US senatorial court?, well
who knows - for that is perhaps, possibly, maybe between the jurors and their
political affiliations, their ‘base’, their weighing up of future prospects
and, of course their ‘good faith’ and conscience…
© Pistis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and
past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily
indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’:
@Pistis_wonders
[i] See, for example: Pistis – considered to be
one of the good spirits to escape Pandora’s box; the mythological personification
perhaps of trust, honesty, reliability and good faith; whose ‘opposite numbers’
were called Apate (deception) and Pseudologoi (lies); whose peers were called
Fides (faith), Pietas (piety) (www.theoi.com/Daimon/Pistis.html);
who influenced possibly alongside elpis (hope), sophrosyne (prudence) and the
charites/graces (charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, goodwill, fertility);
Pistis, which maybe in rhetoric sought to induce true judgement through
enthymematic argument – words and perhaps pictures - in modes such as: a subject
matter capable of inducing a state of mind within the audience (affect?), the
subject itself appealing to the intellect (cognition?) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistis)
– influencing behaviour?; whose Greek
origins (pre-Christian reductive appropriation?) embraced persuasive discourse concentrating
on affect and effect; who perhaps, possibly, maybe championed persuasion and
argument as a whole process…?; NB: I’m sure that there is little doubt that
other views and better summaries and information are available…
[ii] Jeffrey
Somers 8.7.2019 https://www.thoughtco.com/rhetorical-devices-4169905
[iii] Op
cit
[iv]
Pistis is pretty sure that this is not a word… until now‽
