Rhetorica: The Topoi, IV. Authority
To argue from authority would be beneath the dignity of theology, since “authority is the weakest kind of proof,” according to Boethius. —St. Thomas Aquinas
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Rhetorica: The Topoi, III. Cause and Effect
This is, justly, a popular topos. But there are certain vulnerabilities inherent in it, which we disregard at our peril.
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Rhetorica: The Topoi, I. Definition
In this topos, we are dealing not just with “how to use a dictionary” but with “how to link two minds in the realm of being.”
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Rhetorica: The Common Topoi
As rhetoric is a complement to dialectic, so the topos is a complement to the syllogism. (Thrilled yet?)
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Rhetorica: The Fourth Ditch of Fraud
Though the topic is complex, the lesson is simple: To understand statistics, we should first learn how to.
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Rhetorica: Of Bacon; or, The Scientific Method
Not all science is equally rigorously conducted; if you are testing a hypothesis, you are doing science—it might just not be very thorough.
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Rhetorica: The Arrest of the Mad Hatter
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?
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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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Dialectica: An Index of Logic (and Fallacies)
Not everyone gets a classical education, replete with grammar, logic, and rhetoric; but when pursuing wisdom, it is never too late to begin.
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The Brain, a User’s Manual: Conjunction Junction
The necessary-and-sufficient conditional and the disjunctive lie before us; and then … well, we can burn that bridge when we come to it.
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