Learning to think rationally can be counterintuitive; at times, one almost feels like Alice astray in Wonderland. Are there no limits to the strangeness of the world?
Rhetorica: The Arrest of the Mad Hatter Read More »
The thirteenth century was the high noon of Christendom; which also means it is when its light began to decline.
Texts in Context: The Chalice and the Sword Read More »
On the rhetorical appeal known as pathos; or, a practical manual for manipulating people’s emotions.
Rhetorica: Won’t Someone Please Think of the Pathetic?—Part II Read More »
Both the origin and the ultimate development of courtly love are to be found in far stranger places than we might predict.
Texts in Context: The Secret of the Rose—Part II Read More »
What, if anything, differentiates the rhetorician’s legitimate “appeal to emotion” from the sophist’s fallacies?
Rhetorica: Won’t Someone Please Think of the Pathetic?—Part I Read More »
Romantic love certainly existed before the eleventh century. What the troubadours invented was the idea that it was a good thing.
Texts in Context: The Secret of the Rose—Part I Read More »
A person is credible if they not only possess, but display honesty, courage, and clarity. How do we do that?
Rhetorica: How to Do Ethos Good Read More »
The Inquisition might be the single most faultily-understood institution in history; and yet there is a core of truth in all the errors about it.
Texts in Context: An Examination of the Holy Office Read More »
As there are three temporal contexts for rhetoric, so there are three appeals it can make to a man: those to credibility, intelligence, and humanity.
Rhetorica: The Rhetorical Appeals Read More »
One of the most potent forces throughout medieval society was the apostolic poverty movement, heretical and orthodox by turns; but what was it?
Texts in Context: The Apostolic Poverty Movement Read More »
