Rhetorica: The Rhetorical Appeals
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.
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Texts in Context: The Apostolic Poverty Movement
One of the most potent forces throughout medieval society was the apostolic poverty movement, heretical and orthodox by turns; but what was it?
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Rhetorica: A Speech in Time Saves Nine
Persuasion aims at action, and action takes place in time. It follows that rhetoric looks in three directions: past, present, and future.
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Texts in Context: The Queen of the Sciences
“What great advantages would philosophy give us over other men, if by studying it we could learn to govern our passions?” — Peter Abelard
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Rhetorica: Of the Same Clay
What is essential to argument is not that both sides prove everything they say, but only that they begin from premises both parties accept.
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Texts in Context: The Real Renaissance
If there is an era that truly deserves to be hailed as possessing a new energy of civilization-spanning rebirth, it is the beginning of the High Middle Ages.
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Rhetorica: The Weakness of Magnanimity
An essential part of the secret of magnanimity is, knowledge is not a zero-sum game.
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Texts in Context: Timeline of the Early Middle Ages
Just as Roman law and Christian faith were being torn to pieces in the Mediterranean, parchment and pen had appeared among the barbarians of the north …
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Rhetorica: The Practice of Magnanimity
“Most people are normal” does not sound controversial, or even worth saying; but it is surprisingly hard, and worthwhile, to really believe.
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Texts in Context: In the Year of Our Lord
The High Middle Ages are almost upon us. With them come two movements that will transfigure Europe and, eventually, the globe.
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