rhetoric
-
On Testimony: Rhetoric, Witnesses, and the Problem of Trust
A Philosophical Happy Hour investigating the rhetorical use and fittingness of witness testimony in efforts at persuasion. Very little of what we know—or believe ourselves to know—comes directly from our own experience. That is, someone might have a kind of local familiarity with things, but he has never seen Africa or Asia, never observed distant…
-
Retrospect: Retrieving Dialectic in a “Rhetorical” Age
Recapitulating our Philosophical Happy Hour on the history, nature, meaning, and importance of dialectic. A few key insights derived from our Happy Hour: First, outside rare situations, Aristotelian dialectic has become almost impossible in the US (and many other countries as well). This near-impossibility has rendered many persons not only unfamiliar with the practice, but…
-
On Dialectic: Its History and Importance
A Philosophical Happy Hour discussing the history, nature, meaning, and importance of dialectic—including its relation to logic, demonstration, and rhetoric. Old words of long and widespread use often suffer many interpretations: idea, object, concept, form. One word which has suffered greatly is “dialectic”. The word’s Greek etymology indicates “speaking across”, that is, a conversational speaking. …
-
Rhetorica ad Herennium [English]
Among the tasks of the Lyceum Institute is a restoration of forgotten traditions and texts. Newly produced within this initiative is our republication of the Rhetorica ad Herennium, a classic work in Roman oratory, in the English translation by Harry Caplan. This text, from roughly 80BC, informed the study of rhetoric in the days of…
-
Trivium Courses (2026)
In 2026, the Lyceum Institute will offer the first three of six courses in our core Trivium curriculum, providing an entryway into a truly “liberal” education: We are also aiming to introduce regular occasions throughout the year for practicing dialectical disputation and rhetorical presentation, though plans for this are still taking shape. The three core…
-
On Memory and its Training
A Philosophical Happy Hour on the nature, operations, and training of the memory. “This invention [of writing]”, says the Egyptian King Thamus, in Plato’s Phaedrus, “will produce forgetfulness in the souls who have learned it.” It perhaps shocks us, slightly at least, to read this condemnation of writing. But let us consider the rest of…
-
On Habits of Speaking Well
A Philosophical Happy Hour on the use of language to convey thinking: from daily conversation, to professional presentation, let us ask after the habits of speaking well. How does one learn to speak well? Many courses are offered with proposed solutions—from the WikiHow to MasterClasses and entire college majors. Yet it seems, upon brief reflection,…
-
Art of Grammar II: Composition
Few persons who have completed high school are entirely incapable of writing. But it is one thing to possess an elementary capacity for writing and another to write with skill. Learning the skill of writing—or what we might term the art of composition—requires not only practice, but careful habits of thinking. These habits, in order…