Maybe it’s me, or maybe it’s this old text, but I had a hard
time wrapping my heard around this text. The only things that really stuck out
to me was Gorgias’s focus on heeding to the irrational persuasion of love. He
kept coming back to this as a major idea as to why Helen was in the situation
she was. Maybe she was convinced by love. Gorgias almost made the irrational
seem rational and tangible when talking about love and its compelling nature.
How many times in our lives have we let the irrational
guide our opinions or actions? Of course, I’ve seen many women become tainted
with irrational thought so much that it compelled them to action. Just today, I
was talking with a friend about my desire to be nice and live guilt-free (in
this particular situation, I was speaking of trying to let someone down without
hurting feelings) and asking for advice for what to do in this situation. My friend
and I were commiserating with each other, thinking about similar problems. Both
being girls, we were letting our emotions guide a lot of our feelings. Luckily,
there was a man standing behind us while we were talking who chimed in and gave
us a more rational train of thought. My guilt (completely irrational) was
guiding my thoughts and almost guided my actions. Luckily, this man was using
much more persuasive logic.
Both of these stories question the validity of feelings
and the pressures that we feel irrationally. I’m not sure what it was that
caused Helen to do what she did, but Gorgias makes a very convincing argument
that irrational thought may have been the culprit. After today’s events, I’d
believe it, too.
I totally agree. Isn't that weird that we give heed to the irrational more than the rational at times? How many people "know" they shouldn't do something but do it because they felt like it, or the opposite, "know" they should do something yet don't. Knowledge doesn't equal persuasion. I think helping someone to feel something can be much more persuasive than helping someone to know something.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to me, emotion does not rule my rationale very often. When it does however, I will admit that it can cause me to do some things that logic would consider irrational. Professor Burton did express that we as humans tend to be irrational. Perhaps that's why when we are first persuaded in an irrational way, it can be very difficult to turn that around to a more logical point of view, as opposed to that order vice-versa. Good use of pathos.
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