Attention All Pre-Psychology Professors!!!

Hello!

             Welcome to the world of psychology; a world where the mind is studied, behavior is analyzed, and human nature is described! As a future psychology professor, you will be responsible for teaching the next generation of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts the correct and ethnically sound way to understand, diagnose, and treat psychological disorders. You will need to understand the differences in the types of psychology and be clear and direct in teaching each of them so as to not show your biases. Professoring is not the same as teaching; you will have a body of students to address but you will also have publishers, faculty members, board members, and an entire scientific world that you will need to communicate with. In order to do this job correctly, there are a few things you will have to understand about being a professor in psychology.

Outline of Thoughts

Audience Profile:

A psychology professor is going to have the characteristics of both someone interested in psychology and someone who enjoys teaching in a formal setting. Usually a psychology major or career would involve a lot of interpersonal communication and the ability to talk to disturbed people about their problems and concerns but since the target audience is interested in teaching psychology, their communication skills will need to be focused more on instructed a large class and not on therapy. For students majoring in psychology, they will take classes like any other field of psychology until they are working on their PhD, at which time they will start focusing on the teaching aspects of their field. The biggest training step that these students will go through is their graduate student teaching, where they will teach lower level psychology courses while working on their own higher education.

 Context:

A college professor has a much different job than that of a normal teacher. Professors have a different audience, have to publish, and have a lot more freedom about what they talk about and test on than a teacher of a different educational level. A professor has to be ready for criticism and feedback from students, from publishing companies, and from the university at which they work. Without proper communication and an understanding of the controversies of their field, a psychology professor could be in real trouble.

Rhetoric:

As a future college professor, students interested in psychology professoring need to keep in mind that they will be teaching adults, not kids or teenagers. This makes their job slightly easier in the fact that their students are, quite literally, invested in their education, but it also means that the communication and rhetoric that the professor uses must be adapted for students who make their own decisions and set their own schedules. The students may be more respectful, but they won’t always prioritize the class as much as the professor does. Of course, for some professors the class isn’t as much of a priority as the research and publishing that the professor also has to do. It really depends on the professor and on the university how much time and energy is spent on instruction instead of researching and vice versa. Of course a psychology professor also has to deal with interoffice relations; always being respectful of the other professors and staff. This is especially important in psychology where some of the information is controversial and heavily debated. A psych professor must always be respectful and open-minded to others’ views on these issues.

History:

A student interested in being a psychology professor needs to understand the historical and current perceptions in psychology so they do not tread on controversial issues unknowingly. Knowing that the ancient Greeks and Romans viewed psychology as a philosophy will put a different perspective on the study and implementation of psychology. Even though psychology is a relatively new science the ideas it presents have been around for a while. The torture and isolation that encapsulated psychology in Medieval Catholicism will remind studiers of psychology to be careful what they pass off a treatments. Professors’ publishing will be treated as fact by the general public and that can lead to dangerous and widespread practices if not handled with cautiousness. In modern times there are many different types of psychology. A professor does not have the luxury of choosing the one that he or she most agrees with and not learning about any others. Since the professor has to teach other students, he or she should try to be as unbiased as possible.

Development Plan:

Since I will be addressing this paper to people who are thinking about becoming psychology majors and professors but have not done so yet, I will need to be careful with how many psychology terms I use. They are not likely to know what psychotherapy entails or what the theories of Carl Rogers are until they have taken actually psychology courses. I will need to be direct and to the point with the way I word things but I do not really have to simplify anything because I will be addressing an audience that is of my own age and intellect.

The section that I will probably need to give the most attention to is the context of a professor and establishing the difference between any professoring job and psychology professoring, and being a professor of psychology versus becoming a psychiatrist or psychologist. I will also incorporate the differences in the types of rhetoric used in all of the various metaphorical “hats” a psychology professor wears in performing the many duties assigned to him or her. Of course I will need to address the controversies and difficulties a modern psychology professor faces, but I am waiting on one my sources to respond to me with information in that regard.

It All Happened in Your Mind

Analyzing the ancient history of teaching psychology is a rather difficult task since psychology wasn’t even recognized as a science until a man named Wilhelm Wundt started researching it in 1879. The first professors of modern psychology didn’t start appearing until 1888, when James Cattell was hired at the University of Pennsylvania. Slowly however, the field of psychology took off and teaching psychology became more important, especially as different types of psychology were developed. (for more information about the different types see Information). There was a brief stint in WWII where psychology was halted in Europe due to Nazi persecution, but other than that it has been a steadily growing field.

What existed of psychology in Greece and Rome was actually a branch of philosophy, not a separate science. Plato even had some input on mood psychology in his teachings about the implementation of music therapy. They even used music for medicinal purposes and were very careful as to what music citizens could listen to. However, there really weren’t any psychology professors in ancient Greece or Rome. Philosophers of the day may have considered the psychological state of their audience and even, especially in Socrates’ case, manipulated the psyche of the people they had debates with. They may have even passed these techniques onto their students in their schools of philosophy. In this way, they were almost teaching psychology without actually calling it psychology. Other than the philosophical elements of psychology, it is interesting to note that Plato believed that the brain is the center of mental processes, whereas Aristotle believed the center was the heart.

Medieval Catholics treated mental illnesses as demonic possessions and curses from God. What little care the mentally ill got was reduced to exorcisms and torture in attempt to rid the body of the demons said to be possessing it. The education aspect of psychology would have consisted of teaching priests and doctors how to drill holes in mentally unstable patients’ heads in order to “release the demons inside” or perhaps teaching them the proper technique as to how to beat a mentally instable person so severely that the demon will not be willing to stay in such a pained body. Medieval psychology was not a very scientific nor humane practice.

Luckily for our day we understand the chemical and genetic causes of mental illnesses to the point of being able to treat and care for those afflicted. We have discovered that emotional problems are real concerns that can be addressed through therapy and the medical model. We acknowledge that mental illnesses should be treated by trained professionals who have gone to school and become educated in their field and we know that we need psychology professors to educate budding psychologists and therapists.

Robinson, Daniel N. (n.d.). An Intellectual History of Psychology. Available from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=VPJRgc_irPsC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=ancient+roman+psychology&ots=d0dXafgLA9&sig=XehjBcvCNQ_2LkMGooh-8vtvX1A#v=snippet&q=greek%20psychology&f=false

Discovering Psychology. (2001). History of Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.learner.org/series/discoveringpsychology/history/history_nonflash.htm

Myers, David G. (2013). Psychology. Holland, Michigan: Worth.

Plastic Giving Thanks

Hurrah! [exclamatio] We come out of the cabinet, slightly stuck together from the lack of use of our slightly opaque bodies [personification]. We have waited all year for this day when we are allowed to rule the large cooling box [metonymy]. You fill us to the top with still-warm turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, vegetables, and stuffing [description]. Then you put on our matching hats [periphrasis] and set us to the side. We huddle on the counter in the neat rows you put us in, anxiously awaiting the next command from your ever graceful hands [synecdoche].

Oh blessed Thanksgiving! Oh blessed Thanksgiving [repetition]! How we love the amount of leftovers you produce! For only on you do we have a such a glorious purpose and meaning to our having been purchased [apostrophe]! For even when the day comes when these humans despise our continued existence, our never-ending contents, our endless supply of the remnants to the feast they once enjoyed [articulus] we shall know that we have a coveted spot in the refrigerator [prolepsis]! And when it comes our day of emptiness and we run out of food to provide, we will be allowed to rest and rejuvenate in the relaxing riptides of the dishwasher and then return and be restored to our rooms in the cabinet [alliteration]. When will we see the light of the kitchen again? Perhaps not for another year [subjectio].

Preaching! ..with Style

I saw mostly low and high style in Augustine's speech as he both taught about forgiveness and motivated people to act on his teachings by giving them the guilt trip. There were a few instances of moderate style but they were few and far between.

The Grand Darkness
Augustine's description of the darkness that people who refuse to forgive must walk through he was definitely using a grand level of style. While reading his description you can almost hear his voice drop in suspense and rise in energy. He quotes the scripture in 1 John 3:15 that compares hating a brother to murder, and of course the entire audience knows what happens to murderers.




The Low-ly Father
There were many times that Augustine used low style, but my favorite was the example of the father correcting his son; used to teach the difference between anger and hatred. I have a little brother who assumed that if he was punished it meant our parents no longer loved him. Of course as he got older he learned this was not the case and it really was his fault he was in trouble. I think any parent or older child in the audience would be able to understand this piece of Augustine's teaching.


The Moderate Comfort
Each of the groups that Augustine presented had a task they were given; except for the group that would forgive if their transgressor ever got around to asking them to. Now if Augustine is not asking that group to do anything it can't be grand style (unless you consider him telling them not to do something an exhortation) and he really isn't trying to teach them anything, so it isn't low. That leaves moderate; and I think that makes sense. Moderate style is an attempt to please your audience and I see this section as Augustine trying to comfort that group of people. He tells them that he knows that they have done all that they can I the forgiveness process. That is probably one of the most reassuring things he could say to that group of people after they sat through a lecture about forgiveness without being able to forgive.

Ascending through Biblical Rhetoric

Psalms 24: 3-4
"3.Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who should stand in his holy place?
4. He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully."

Adhortio
A commandment, promise, or exhortation intended to move one's consent or desires
Ok, admittedly this may be a stretch, especially since other passages in the Bible exemplify this much better but maybe this will help someone else so they can use it. In a sort of roundabout way, though not quite like circumlocution, God is promising His people that if they follow the standards  in verse four they will get the blessings in verse three in attempt to move them to desire to be good.

Antonomasia
Substituting a descriptive phrase for a proper name, or substituting a proper name for a quality associated with it
"The hill of the Lord" and "his holy place" is in reference to the temple or even to the celestial kingdom, but rather than saying temple, David, the author of this Psalm, makes the scripture more eloquent by describing the holiness of the place and allowing the readers to infer as to where he is talking about.

Anthypophora
To ask and immediately answer one's own questions.
This is rather obvious in this passage, but it allows David to pique his audience's interest and make them ask themselves, "yeah, what would allow me to get to God's presence?" Thus they pay more attention to the answer to the question as opposed to just skimming over the scripture with the attitude of it being "just another commandment."

Taxis
To divide a subject into its various components or attributes.
The subject of the second verse is the type of person who can ascend to the hill of the Lord. David uses Taxis to break down the characteristics, or adjusts, of a person who would be able to achieve that level of salvation and makes it easier for his audience to visualize what type of person they need to be.

Conflict Issues and Special Topics of Invention in Psychology Professoring

A Point of Conflict in College Psychology Professoring:

              It seems like college students are always trying to boost their grades and they often do this by trying to talk the professor into giving them extra credit or being more lenient on a current score. Of course the professor can’t be too liberal with giving good grades or the class will not accurately reflect the effort and learning that respective students put into the class. However, the professor also wants to help his or her students achieve what they can in the class.

Topics of Invention in Professoring:

              The typical situation is that the student comes into a professor’s office and talks to him/her one-on-one. Let’s say that the student did absolutely miserably on the last test and is worried about losing a scholarship due to the failing grade (just to up the stakes a little). The professor wants to help, but also has to make the situation fair to other students.

              “I did notice that your test score was very low, much lower than I would expect given your attendance and participation. I notice that you usually sit in the front of class and, according to your grades, it seems like you always turn your homework in on time and well done. I can’t give you any additional points since that wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the class. However, I think I will offer an optional extra credit assignment and allow students to write up a case study analyzing the psychiatric condition of other students as they enter and exit the testing center. Based on the length and quality of your reports I will offer appropriate points of extra credit. How does that sound?”

Analysis:

Rebellious and rude students are less likely to
win their professors' sympathy. Good thing I'm neither...right?

              When professors are approached by students they have to use a variety of topics of invention to seem both fair and just. Worthiness/Unworthiness of the student is a big point because a professor won’t help a student who doesn’t deserve the help. This is often based on past fact/future fact because the professor must account for how the student has worked before and how they are likely to act in the future. The Degree of help has to be decided because the balance of fairness and Justice must be maintained. Often the gradebook acts as a testimony of being both a document and a witness against/for the student.

Greek Grandma and the Extension of the Bicycle

So before I get started on my main point, I would like to comment on the fact that reading excerpts from Roman rhetorical conversations is very interesting when compared to Greek debate because the Greeks were laying the foundation of what rhetoric would become, without any history to go back on. The Romans kept referring to their rhetorical schooling and had the Greek rhetorical background. There were many times when the Romans referenced the Greeks in their debate, and it almost seemed like an insult. "Your views are like those of the Greek philosophers" (167). That's like us saying, "you talk like my grandma!"
Anyway, comparing De Inventione to De Oratore was much like a coming of age thing, as so many people have mentioned before (I think Spencer had a great take on this.). However, I think I will branch out a little bit and build off of those who posted before me. People have commented that it seems like Cicero had more life experience when he wrote so De Oratore, and I agree, but would ask, why does it seem that way? My answer: emotion and pathos. Before Cicero got into the "real world," or took off his training wheels, his writing read like a dictionary. However, once he learned a little more about rhetoric he realized how important it was to engage the listener in more pathetic appeals. Humor, style, and emotion were emphasized in De Oratore much more than they ever would have been if it had been written by the Cicero who wrote De Inventione.

I've actually had to read this textbook
for a class last year. Wasn't that bad...

The style of the pieces reflected that change as well. De Inventione was much more technical than the dialogue of De Oratore. I understand why Macey may have found the name dropping confusing, but if the dialogue is read like a play script or like an actual conversation then it isn't as confusing as it first appears. I definitely agree with Hailey that De Inventione is less relatable  due to its technicalities. I felt like I was reading a textbook, whereas with De Oratore I actually enjoyed following along with the reading.

Communication and Persuasion in Psychology Professoring

Sorry you guys, another post about an educator. Hopefully I'll be able to make this unique so it will be an asset to be able to compare the educationally-based posts instead of mine just sounding repetitive.

I have always been interested in going into education. As I have gotten older I have changed from wanting to be a fifth grade teacher, to a high school AP teacher, to finally wanting to be a college professor, either at a junior college or at a university. (Notice I never wanted to be a middle school teacher... for a reason. Those teachers definitely have my respect because I would not be able to put up with middle-schoolers every day.) I am still technically trying to choose which subject to teach, but for the purpose of this assignment I chose psychology. Most of the information in this post comes from my own observations, things my psychology teacher has mentioned, and information I gathered in a career explorations class last semester.

So a professor has a slightly different job than a teacher because they deal with adults instead of children or teenagers. This means they relate to their students on a different level. When teachers get respect from their students it is often because they are older and in the authoritative position. As the students get older they tend to respect their teachers less and less because they start to think of themselves as being intelligent. This perception is usually crushed freshman year of college when students realize they do not know as much as they thought they do. Professors are respected because they are knowledgeable in a field the students are usually interested in and because the students actually want to be in school. A professor just has to be fair and students will usually respect them. Professors also usually work with a different class size than a normal teacher; either much larger or much smaller. The size of the class will affect how a professor addresses his students and whether he/she will often work with students one-on-one.

Psychology adds a different twist because some of its concepts are theoretical. A psychology professor has a couple of options for what they could persuade their students; and the decision between them is often subconscious. The professor can either persuade the students that his/her option toward the theoretical side is accurate or he/she can try to be as impartial as possible and let the students decide for themselves. Most of the rhetoric a psychology professor does would fall under the epideictic and legislative forms of oratory since a professor is either exposing students to new information or defending why scientists have come to the conclusions they have about certain things. 

Professors are also unique in that they also have to communicate with the intellectual world through research, discussions, and publishing. Researching and publishing, since they are written down, add an aspect of persuasion that teachers do not have to experience. The audience also changes since a published work is addressed to people who are just as competent in the field as the professor is. In some ways that makes it easier, the professor doesn't have to rely on definitional rhetoric and can instead focus on interpretation. However, defending an interpretation in the intellectual world can be difficult in and of itself. Especially for a psychology professor who has slightly different views than other psychologist; such as a Mormon who believes in altruism. (Religion and self-sacrificing natures do not mix well with popular psychology.)

Feedback and research studies are important to psychology professors in both of the above sides to their jobs. As an educator, a professor should try to improve his/her teaching methods by listening to both what the students and the grades say. If many university students complain about a single professor then that professor is usually doing something to warrant such wide-spread dissatisfaction. If grades are too low or too high then either the professor's grading or the teaching style needs to improve. Among the intellectual community professors have to pay attention to how they are perceived by their peers to make sure they are still seen in a respected light because a discredited psychology professor will have a hard time keeping his/her job.

M-theroman-E (The Roman in Me)

I was interested to learn that games were actually a big part of what Roman children did growing up because they were a big part of my childhood also. Even poor children found time for board games and other recreational activities. Of course, given Roman culture, there was a massive gender gap. Boys played with swords, and girl played with dolls but the same could probably be said of our culture to a lesser extent. There is a list of common Roman games here as well as links to other information about Roman culture.



Ok, so we don't go THIS extravagant for
our FHE brothers...but we do our best to impress.

Also, adding a little bit to Jessie's post, while dinners with guests were an extravagant affair, most meals in Rome were actually quite simple. As a poor college student I can relate. Most of the time I have relatively simple meals but every once and a while my roommates and I will all pitch in for a Sunday meal and we will invite one of our FHE brothers over to eat with us. It has been a lot of fun to get to know them individually, but they probably think we eat better than we actually do because whenever they are over we fix something more extravagant.

Figurative Language about Sandwiches

Tropes:

1. Metaphor
• "The cutting of a sandwich is the whipped cream on a cup of hot cocoa."
• I actually used an extended version of this metaphor in my original blog post about sandwiches. I said that a cut sandwich is better than a normal sandwich in the same way that whipped cream makes a cup of hot chocolate better. Obviously the action of cutting a sandwich is not the same as a physical dollop of whipped cream.
2. Paranomasia
• "Wouldn't you love to meet and squeeze the perfectly cut meat and cheese?"
• "Meet and squeeze" sounds a lot like "meat and cheese" but they do not mean the same thing since "meat and cheese" is referring to a sandwich while "meet and squeeze" is referring to a reaction you might have when being introduced to someone you really admire.
3. Anthimeria
• "I sandwiched the peanut butter and jelly together between two slices of bread."
• This is actually a kind of common anthimeria. People often use the noun "sandwich" as a verb to mean putting things together between two similar objects. The word use creates a type of imagery for the reader.
4. Hyperbole
• "Whether or not you cut your sandwich in half will determine the fate of the entire universe!"
• Obviously the way you eat your sandwich will not alter an significant events for the entire universe, but the exaggeration makes the decision seem much more consequential than it actually is.
5. Oxymoron
• "To make the sandwich experience whole, half it."
• "Whole" and "half" are opposites, but it seems paradoxical because it almost makes sense in this context.

Schemes

1. Parallelism
• "To make a proper sandwich you have to spread the peanut butter, apply the jelly, and cut the sandwich."
• The list of tasks exhibits parallelism in the form of [verb] the [noun], and allows the list to flow better than it would otherwise.
2. Anastrophe
• "Delicious is a sandwich when properly made."
• Usually this would be said "A properly made sandwich is delicious" but this phrasing draws emphasis on the last part of the sentence; or that the sandwich must be properly made to be delicious.
3. Ellipsis
• "A sandwich that is cut is simply better than one that is not."
• It is implied that the word "cut" follows the word "not" because of the way the sentence is framed so the word "cut" can be omitted as an ellipsis.
4. Alliteration
• "Some students still seem squeamish to start slicing their sandwiches."
• Since almost every word starts with the letter S, this sentence is an example of an alliteration.

I am a little sick of writing about sandwiches at this point; but hopefully you aren't too sick of reading about them to comment with your opinions on my figures of speech!

Ode to the Sandwich

Many people do not think about how they could improve their culinary satisfaction by changing the way they eat simple foods. Take an ordinary sandwich for example. Sandwiches are usually a quick meal for when you are in a hurry and they are usually not very remarkable, unless they are prepared properly. A properly prepared sandwich is one that is assembled and then cut in half diagonally so as to ensure the most delicious eating experience [Definition]. You may think this is ridiculous, since the uncut and cut sandwiches should have the same flavor due to being composed of the same ingredients. However, if the sandwich is cut in half then the flavors are much better distributed [Antecedent/Consequence]. Sometimes an uncut sandwich allows toppings to fall out of the opposite side of the bread; virtually a sandwich disaster!

When you eat a sandwich the ideal situation is to get a piece of tender meat, succulent cheese, crispy lettuce, and juicy tomato in each bite, or else the experience of the sandwich is not complete [Whole/parts]. The timing of the sandwich eating process is also important. Cutting the sandwich in half allows for the eater to enjoy the soft, inside bread while still in the beginning stages of eating and leaves the crust for when the eater has already begun to take the sustenance for granted [Cause/Effect]. If eating an uncut sandwich is plain and ordinary then eating a sandwich cut in half is fun and exciting [Contraries]! After all, eating an uncut sandwich is like drinking a cup of hot cocoa. It tastes good, but it is much better if a little more effort was put it, either in the form of adding whipped cream or simply cutting it in half [Similarity/Difference]. Now, you may be hesitant to go out of your way and try to make a properly prepared sandwich, but after you try one you will be cutting all of your sandwiches in half [Past Fact/Future Fact]. Don’t be tempted to get lazy and say that an uncut sandwich is good enough because a properly prepared sandwich is infinitely better [Degrees]. I’m just saying that there is a reason that Subway cuts all of their sandwiches in half [Authority], but don’t take my word for it. Go with your gut instinct and try it for yourself, cut your next sandwich in half before you eat it [Supernatural]!

profile for persuasion: Studio C Fans

Main Characteristics and Values:

The majority of Studio C fans are Latter-Day Saints simply because Studio C is an LDS group, however non-LDS viewers are not uncommon. Most Studio C fans love to laugh and enjoy a cleaner type of humor than the general population. Fans can be found in all age groups, but are usually younger than middle-aged. The main demographic would probably be high school and college aged people of both genders. Usually Studio C fans can be found in groups, whether this is because they are more social or because the people who like Studio C also tend to have friends that like similar shows. However, I have often heard someone in one group say a reference to Studio C that gets commented on by someone in an entirely different group and the two groups will share a laugh over the exchange. This may be due to a type of extroverted trend that can be found in Studio C audiences or it just may be more prominent amount extroverted people.

Likely/Unlikely to persuade:

Clean humor would be the main source of appeal to a Studio C fan, but other appeals would also be an appearance of a cast member on Studio C or a show put on by Studio C crew members and writers. If it is the case that Studio C fans are social people then another motivation would be to get a group of people to persuade them. They would probably not be persuaded by people who do not have the same sense of humor.

Test Case: Attending a Play:

If the play was a comedy then Studio C fans would not have to be persuaded very long to go see it. A straight play or tragedy would take a little more effort, but if they could go as a group then they would probably be willing. Since Studio C is a media production, the people who enjoy watching the cast perform would probably not be opposed to any production in general but they may be more excited to go to certain plays over others.

Helen Revisited

After rereading Gorgias’ Encomium of Helen with the new outlook of someone who has read Aristotle, I was able to pick up on things that I had missed before. For example, the Encomium is actually the perfect example of how to practice telling the difference between Antecedent/Consequence and Cause/Effect, both under the Relationship Topic of Invention, simply because there are so many examples of each.

Cause/Effect

              Helen was born of noble parentage SO she had godlike beauty

              Helen was young SO she could easily be overpowered or persuaded

              The above sayings are true SO I, Gorgias, have proven my point

Antecedent/Consequence

              IF the gods made her do it THEN she is innocent

              IF she was taken by force THEN she is the victim

              IF she was persuasively deceived THEN she should be acquitted

Testimony?

Under scrutiny, the Encomium becomes less of a concrete argument and more of an artistic proof because Gorgias rhetorically created the speech himself. He does not have any witnesses, authorities, or documents proving him correct. He does reference the gods, but only in attempt to expound on one of his antecedents. Some of his information is based on rumors, but since he addresses all of the stories people have said concerning Helen instead of using rumors as proof, I do not think that is enough of a testimony to take away from the artistic nature of his proof.

Katie also talked about the apparent lack of testimony in her blog and I think that this topic lends itself to a discussion on kairos. Since Gorgias wasn’t actually trying to defend Helen, who had long since died, the question becomes what was his intended audience and purpose? If he is truly just trying to show off his rhetorical skills as a form of personal advertisement, maybe his lack of testimony was calculated. His audience didn’t want a lecture as much as they wanted a show of rhetorical finesse.

Perfect Weather to talk about Death

HISTORY

              From his speech it was very obvious how important death is to Greek civilization. By analyzing the way people react to death and sorrow we can often discover what they believe about life. For example, the Greeks respect their dead based on how they died; an honorable life was one that was given in military service. Notice that, in mentioning the soldiers who died at Marathon, Pericles reveals that even some military deaths are more honorable than others. What I glean from these facts is that the Greeks were a collectivist society because they saw the community as a whole, not as a collection of individuals. They honored the dead who honored the community by giving of their lives.

RHETORIC

              The order in which Pericles addressed the different groups in his speech stood out to me. First, he talked to the parents, the ones who had sacrificed their lives raising the men who had just died. He reminds them that their sacrifice was not in vain because their sons died honorable deaths and contributed to society. Then he addressed the brothers and sons and the point I made above is emphasized. He doesn’t comfort the living men about the deaths, but rather comforts them that one day they may also be able to die for their country. Lastly, he talks to the widows of the group, the people that in modern times would be addressed and comforted first, and, as touched on by Macey, he mentions them only long enough to say that he isn’t going to talk about them.

PHILOSOPHY

              I don’t know if I can make a definitive statement on which of the three philosophical categories Pericles should be put in, but I definitely can see how he exemplifies the philosophy of a Sophist. At first I was going to sort him as a Socratic because he tries to find the truth of what is happening. However, I realized, with a little help from Hailee, that he was very biased to Athens. Socrates would never have made such blanket statements about Athens being superior.

Confessions of a Persuasive Nature

The use of rhetoric as mimesis was most apparent in the play as a whole. If I had just been watching the play, without thinking about the rhetorical devices, I would have thought the person who played Hecuba was the most melodramatic actress I had ever seen. However, while thinking about what the play was trying to evoke through rhetoric, I was able to appreciate the script and acting as a powerful expression of emotion. In the play’s plot Hecuba realized the way language can imitate human suffering when she tried to persuade Agamemnon to join her cause by appealing to the pain he had felt in the past and what he might feel in the future. She tells Polyxena to do the same when appealing to Odysseus. She tells her daughter, “He has children too” in order to express that she may be able to appeal to his sympathy when she talks to him.

The use of rhetorical language meant to persuade was very prevalent in the play through the role of Hecuba, especially when Polymestor was on trial for his deeds and Hecuba was defending herself. This form of language is more difficult to find in the play as a whole because persuasion is most evident in a conversation. I think that Euripides used the power of language to persuade the audience to like Hecuba, or at least feel bad for her. If the first part of the play was the scene where she killed the two little boys the audience would not feel like she was justified; even after her actions were explained with her back story. However, by providing the story and Hecuba’s monologues first, the audience may not have seen her end actions as repulsive as they might have been perceived without the backstory.

Mobs and civilization..its all in the Mind

The play is irrational in the respect that there is no way that many people would be able to be completely brainwashed into getting rid of all of their inhibitions. Even in a culture where the gods are seen as real this play would seem irrational. However, this was probably Euripides using satire to establish a point about mob mentality and good old fashioned peer pressure.



Peer Pressure and Inhibitions

The fact that Euripides tells the story from the view of someone not overcome by Dionysus helps give the play a little more realism. He could have written it so that the people trying to stop Bacchus looked crazy and all of the irrational people looked sane. While this would add an interesting dynamic to the play, it would compromise what little realism the play has because the readers and watchers of the play probably hadn't sworn their lives over to the god of wine and care-free feelings so they would realize that the bakkhai were still acting insane.

The change in the settings of the play, the fact that the followers of Dionysus go out of the city into the wilderness, helps provide framework for the play and even supplies a theme or moral for the story. In the beginning of the class we talked about what makes a civilization. I think that Euripides is arguing in this play that inhibitions and self-control are also necessary for civilized life because they distinguish humans from animals.

I am taking a psychology class this semester and we are currently talking about the brain and the specific parts that control different aspects of our human lives. One part of the brain is in charge of our personality and self-control. It was interesting to listen to the stories of people who have injured this part of their brains, resulting in a more aggressive personality and increased sexual drive, and then reading this play which focuses on the same changes but with a supernatural cause instead of a physical one. The fact that Euripides grouped these two symptoms, violence and sexuality, without a knowledge of the specialized sections of the brain, is very impressive and tells us a little more about human nature.

Did I Miss Something Here?

I was under the impression that Gorgias was trying to defend Helen in what seemed like a court of law. Yet, while he started out well enough, giving Helen ethos and building up sympathetic pathos, I was expecting a lot more logos for an appeal to a court room. He is obviously a skilled rhetorician, but his argument didn't seem to hold much merit when actually analyzed. She was obviously involved in some love affair, and his reason that she is innocent is that she is an innocent girl overcome by a goddess. I wonder if a similar argument would work for someone who murdered someone else. Were they overcome by Ares? Or someone who stole, were they influenced by Hermes? This piece was very aptly named as an “Encomium” is a speech of praise, not one of argument. In my opinion the speech was talking about Helen, not her innocence, but maybe I am just missing an important argument he makes. Does anyone think they can clarify for me?

Anyway, I have quite a few humorous experiences with rhetoric but one that applies the best is probably the time I was babysitting for a little boy and his sister. The boy wanted to do something he wasn't supposed to but he didn’t want to get in trouble by himself. I don't remember exactly what the intended “crime” was, but let's say it was taking another cookie for simplicity’s sake. So as I am sitting right by them he leans over and in a loud whisper says to his sister, "hey let's take a cookie." She protested. "C'mon! It will be fun and we won't get in trouble. Trust me." Then they both look at me guiltily as they start to do whatever it was they weren't supposed to do. I was amazed at how fast this little boy won over his sister. At that moment he was a master rhetorician; he knew his audience wanted a cookie also, he got her emotionally compromised, and he established his ethos by claiming to be trustworthy. However, like Gorgias’ speech, his argument was not very sound; especially since I heard every word.

Just Go With the Flow!

In Plato’s Gorgias, it quickly becomes apparent that Socrates is the one driving the conversation. The other characters participate in the debate, but the way that Socrates phrases his questions and structures his replies almost forces the conversation in his intended direction. The debate never seems to drift out of his control because he carefully organizes his thoughts in a way that flows. President Bednar was not having a conversation per se, because he was addressing such a large audience, but he worded his speech in such a way that the audiences’ thoughts flowed from one idea to the next in the way that he intended. He achieved this in many forms, but I only have time and space to address two of them.

First he made lists, much like how I am doing now, in order to get his audience to focus on his main points. The same thing happens in General Conference, devotionals, etc. When someone says that they have three points and starts to talk, your attention may start to drift, but as soon as they say they are moving on to the next point you naturally pay attention again just long enough to catch what it is. The speaker does this because he/she knows that the audience will probably not have a long enough attention span to listen to every word, but the list allows for at least the main points to get across.

Secondly, his speech had a natural order to it. He started in the past and moved on to the present and the social media aspects of what he was talking about. Did anyone else notice that the people he quoted, for the most part, went in chronological order? I thought that was really cool; because of the increasing time periods he went from pictures of the prophets, to audio bits, and then to videos of increasing quality.

M-thegreek-E (The Greek in Me)

A can castle my ward built for a HOPE food drive

Me as Maleficent in a Roadshow Performance hosted by my stake in CA

Out of all the many different influences the Ancient Greek culture has on our modern lives, the two I see most in my life (aka the two I had pictures of so I wouldn't have to worry about copyright infringements) are architecture and storytelling. I am amazed by how many buildings are built with Greek influences. I mean, any time you see a pillar the design was probably copied off of a Greek building. I found a website (pillars) that shows three different types of pillars that the Greeks used based on how ornate they wanted a building to be. Anyway, for storytelling I like to read and tell stories but I also like to participate in plays and drama productions. So apparently there is more Greek in me than I thought!