“As reason is the glory of man, so the lamp of reason is eloquence.” The Origin and History of Oratory In “Brutus“, Cicero traces the origin and history of oratory in ancient Greece and Rome, and provides a concise and astute critique of various classes of individual orators, ranking their achievements in the five components of rhetoric (invention, arrangement, diction/expression, action/delivery and memory). Demosthenes is considered the greatest among the […]
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“On Sophistical Refutations” by Aristotle
What is Sophistry? That some reasonings are genuine, while others seem to be so but are not, is evident. This happens with arguments, as also elsewhere, through a certain likeness between the genuine and the sham. For physically some people are in a vigorous condition, while others merely seem to be so by blowing and rigging themselves out as the tribesmen do their victims for sacrifice; and some people are […]
Read more“On Interpretation” by Aristotle
Propositions “Truth and falsity imply combination (copulation) and separation.” The denial must deny just that which the affirmation affirms concerning the same subject, and must correspond with the affirmation both in the universal or particular character of the subject and in the distributed or undistributed sense in which the proposition is understood. If anything else be negatively predicated of the subject or if anything else be the subject though the […]
Read more“Epistles” by Plato
“My greatness consists in making myself follow my own instructions.” (Letter II) Wisdom and Power “It is natural for wisdom and great power to come together, and they are for ever pursuing and seeking each other and consorting together. … When men talk about Hiero or about Pausanias the Lacedaemonian they delight to bring in their meeting with Simonides and what he did and said to them; and they are […]
Read more“Cratylus” by Plato
There are two intertwining themes in this dialogue. On the one hand, Socrates discourses on the origins and mutations of words, and whether names exist by convention or by nature; otoh, since names express the essence of the things signified, he delves into the names of Gods and heroes, making a long and elaborate parody of those who posit motion as the true attribute of well-being, only to deliver the […]
Read more“The Language Instinct” by Steven Pinker
This book makes easier reading than “The Stuff of Thought”, but it’s also less informative. There are many speculations, but not enough evidence. Pinker doesn’t demonstrate exactly “how the mind creates language”, which is what the subtitle suggests and what I’m mainly interested in, but instead he expounds the theory of “Universal Grammar”, which was initially developed by Noam Chomsky. In a nutshell, the argument is that there are so […]
Read more“The Stuff of Thought” by Steven Pinker
Informative Professor Pinker introduced the readers to some of the major constructs used in the English language, such as content-locatives, container-locatives, double-object datives, prepositional-datives, causatives and intransitives. He also gave an overview of various linguistic theories, such as Extreme Nativism, Radical Pragmatism and Linguistic Determinism. I find it very informative and interesting, especially the ingenious experiments conducted to test the theories and explore the cognitive capabilities of babies, monkeys and […]
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