SPCM 201 1st Edition Lecture 21Language and Human Nature: Nietzsche and Weaver’s Very Different Approaches to Rhetoric  Two Modern Thinkers Acting Out Against Two Different Forces  Nietzsche  Responds to increasing control over people and populations through the will to POWER and KNOWLEDGE  Weaver  Responds to increasing application of SCIENCE and LOGIC to all human experiences and forms of epistemology Friedrich Nietzsche  1844-1900 A.D. German philosopher, thinker, and poet  Focused on ideas related to power, doubt, questioning Truth and religion Highly influential on postmodernism Often labeled a nihilist Probably wrongly  Debby downer  On Truth and Lies  Knowing (or the belief in Knowing) is a “blinding fog over the eyes and sense of men, thus deceiving them concerning the value of existence.” Blinds us from the reality of what is around is  Human being don’t KNOW anything; in fact we are, by nature, DECIEVERS and LIARS  Truth vs. The Truth Function There is real, authentic TRUTH, only a Truth function “uniformly valid and binding designation is invented for things” We, as a community, get together and decide we will call something trueto serve a social function, not because we know it to be True Truth is a useful tool for managing society  Why do we need Truth?  We have a “herd” mentality which compels us to be social We want to be part of a community  To make community possible, we need agreed upon rules The concept of “Truth” helps us enforce those rules  “Liars” who defy our rules are forced out of community  We protect ourselves from the brutal forces of nature w/Truth What part does rhetoric play? The meaning of words are a good false example of this false “Truth” All of them are arbitrary All words and concepts are also metaphors Imprecise descriptions of events, ideas and experiences which cannot be translated through language  Therefore… All of those institutions that proclaim to know TRUTH are just “shadows built upon shadow” Religion, Science, Philosophy, etc.  These are “Illusions which we have forgotten are illusions.” More than anything, they are systems of power, order, and control—and impressive ones at that  Rhetoric then… Is a means of control, but one that we often voluntarily choose to follow  A “good” rhetor is someone who “lie[s] according to fixed convention, to lie with the herd and in a manner binding upon everything.” Richard M. Weaver 1910-1963 A.D. American theorist of the American South, Conservatism, and rhetoric Studied rhetoric from an English perspective  Highly influenced by Plato One of the major 20th century rhetorical thinkers Rhetoric is NOT a science, because humans are not “robots.” The Fight Against Scientism  Scientism: “The application of scientific assumptions to subjects which are not wholly comprised of naturalistic phenomena Treat people as logical, rational, machines Follows from Descartes  A History of Scientism  An “Alteration of man’s image on man” Humans begin “to think validly was to think scientifically”  Scientism was man’s “redeemer” Logic and rationality would set us free… While emotion, religion Rhetoric does not do well under this scenario… Goes from “questionable worth” to being outright “condemned”  Particularly because “the most obvious truth about rhetoric is that its object is the whole man.”  Also, because rhetoric addresses man “as conditioned by history”  Rhetoric is “a prime target of attack” We want a rhetoric that understands our humanity  A rhetoric that: Is “of the world” “Appeals to circumstances” “Keeps an eye on reality”  Considers character and ethics “H[as] histories Could it be any other way? (“formal rhetoric”) NO! Why?  “Rhetoric is cognate with language” Definition: COGNATE “Of the same or similar nature: generically alike”  “Men are born rhetoricians” It is “impossible and even ridiculous that utterances of men could be neutral” (i.e. logical only) “Every use of speech…exhibits an attitude and implies an