105 Matching Annotations
  1. Apr 2024
    1. The first draft of this scheme of indexing was worked out inPhiladelphia in 1896-7 and after some years of constant appli-cation involving an index of some 50,000 cards it was re-written-in the light of experience gained.

      Julius Kaiser built a card index (zettelkasten) of 50,000 index cards based on a system he says he worked out between 1896-7 when he was Librarian of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum. In following years he applied the system to three additional card indexes (of unmentioned sizes).

      His experience in doing this provides significant ethos for his coming arguments and discussion.

  2. Oct 2023
    1. Part I: Inventors

      I've come to think that the purpose of part 1 of the book is part rhetorical device (ethos). David Lipsky is using it to build up some credibility as a writer. He's covering topics that many are likely somewhat knowledgeable about, but is adding some additional color, details, and information which most surely don't know. This has the effect of showing the depths to which he's researched the topics to be able to weave them into such a story.

      This will tend to pay off as he begins addressing the potentially more contentious (for some) material in the climate crisis section.

    1. Like I said, you know, he's consistently shouting out the PR in all areas of what he does. And he's also consistently pretty vocal politically, I think, in many ways. He has a history in the past of doing this

      The host effectively uses Bad Bunny's Ethos to explain his capacity to discuss Puerto Rican politics. Bad Bunny consistently expresses his opinions on social issues through his music, establishing credibility in his statements.

  3. Feb 2023
    1. The researchers speculate that fast food had not caught on as much in Asian-American households. These families were not as integrated into the U.S. lifestyle, including its eating habits. Fully 27.4 percent of Asian children in the United States were born overseas. This can be compared with 19.7 percent of Latino children, 2.5 percent of whites and 1.9 percent of blacks.

      The researchers speculate that fast food had not caught on as much in Asian-American households. These families were not as integrated into the U.S. lifestyle, including its eating habits. Fully 27.4 percent of Asian children in the United States were born overseas. This can be compared with 19.7 percent of Latino children, 2.5 percent of whites and 1.9 percent of blacks.

  4. Jan 2023
    1. hese questions recall some familiar rhetorical categories of composition, including writing as context, writing as style, writing as signification

      when words like "logos", "ethos", and "pathos" suck, remember the graffiti article

  5. Dec 2022
    1. Even when reading a book,the goal-oriented nature and intention of reading is paramount.6

      61 Mortimer Jerome Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, Rev. and updated ed (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972), 45.

      I see some of the sense of this footnote, which helps to establish some ethos by calling to mind Adler/Van Doren's classic, but this particular page in their text is really about paying enough attention not to fall asleep and thus doesn't underline Scheper's point as well as references to other portions of their book about goals and active reading.

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  6. Sep 2022
    1. targeting an audience of psychology students

      I love that you're thinking about the authors intentions and the rhetoric they're using to establish the target audience.

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  7. Jun 2022
    1. Ernest Hemingway was one of the most recognized and influentialnovelists of the twentieth century. He wrote in an economical,understated style that profoundly influenced a generation of writersand led to his winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

      Forte is fairly good at contextualizing people and proving ethos for what he's about to present. Essentially saying, "these people are the smart, well-known geniuses, so let's imitate them".

      Humans are already good at imitating. Are they even better at it or more motivated if the subject of imitation is famous?

      See also his sections on Twyla Tharp and Taylor Swift...

      link to : - lone genius myth: how can there be a lone genius when the majority of human history is littered with imitation?

  8. Apr 2022
    1. And now, I stand before you, Mr. President

      Mr. Wiesel establishes his ethos by showing he is a holocaust survivor.

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  9. Sep 2021
    1. I live one block away from MacArthur Park in Los Angeles,

      Ethos: credibility established via lived experience

  10. Mar 2021
    1. The second is that their approach of allowing standards to evolve through practical application, rather than highfalutin conjecture, is an incredibly powerful technique for problem-solving. The number of my ideas that have died on paper as I try to flesh them out are beyond count. It's the Goldilocks conundrum: the feeling that something needs to be just right before other people can see it. The IndieWeb methodology proves that this logic should just be thrown away.

      It took me a while to see this too. Many report that attending law school is really just learning a different way of seeing and approaching the world. IndieWeb has been much like this for me. It provides a different and often useful framing for approaching problems, not just with regard to the web, but to life in general.

  11. Apr 2020
    1. First,it motivatedher to refuteotherabusive,male-dominatedliterarytreatmentsof women.Second,it establishedChristine'sreputa-tionas a femaleintellectual,a well-educated,outspokenwomanwhocouldargueeffectivelyanddefendher positions.Andfinally,it pointedto hercharacterandcre

      I imagine she had many enemies for all of these reasons, and it's interesting and gratifying to see her ethos grew throughout her life as well as her confidence. She clearly took a lot of risks to say what she felt needed to be said, and the reward was her progress as a rhetor.

  12. Oct 2019
    1. …it is not only necessary to consider how to make the speech itself demonstrative and convincing, but also that the speaker should show himself to be of a certain character…and that his hearers should think that he is disposed in a certain way toward them; and further, that they themselves should be disposed in a certain way towards him.[1]

      Credibility or "ethos," per Aristotle.

  13. Sep 2019
    1. The ancient Greeks described charisma as a “gift of grace,” an apt descriptor if you believe likability is a God-given trait that comes naturally to some but not others.

      The ancient Greeks knew the power of persuasion and influence based on the ethos of great communicators.

  14. Feb 2019
    1. me Truth which was dry and Unaffecting in a vulgar Authors words, Charms and Subdues you when cloath'd in his

      It's often more than just the words themselves or the way they are delivered that make such a difference, though. The first example that came to mind is Thersites's and Achilles's speeches in Book 2 of The Illiad, where Thersites (a lowly, uncouth, and ugly soldier) says essentially the same speech (in mostly the same words) as Achilles--one is well received and the other is not, but the difference wasn't strictly in charm.

    2. Astell suggests that the woman rhetor can best gain this favomblc ethos by leading a life that demonstrates her sincere com­mitment to Christianity,

      Prior or extrinsic credibility (based on experience and reputation), as opposed to demonstrated or intrinsic credibility (shown during speech itself).

  15. Nov 2018
  16. Sep 2018
    1. but where there is no certainty and there is room for doubt, our confidence is absolute

      The power of Authority, ethos. Think, Sacha Baron Cohen.

    2. moral character of the speaker

      Ethos

  17. Jun 2018
    1. One of the stories

      Here we see a good example of ethos in Bruni's article, introducing his own credibility by way of citing recent developments on college campuses as reported by a well-respected professional journal.

  18. Oct 2017
    1. You know a while back I met a young man named Shamus in a VFW Hall in East Moline, Illinois.  He was a good-looking kid, six-two, six-three, clear eyed, with an easy smile.  He told me he’d joined the Marines and was heading to Iraq the following week.  And as I listened to him explain why he’d enlisted, the absolute faith he had in our country and its leaders, his devotion to duty and service, I thought this young man was all any of us might ever hope for in a child.  But then I asked myself: Are we serving Shamus as well as he's serving us?  I thought of the 900 men and women, sons and daughters, husbands and wives, friends and neighbors, who won’t be returning to their own hometowns.  I thought of families I had met who were struggling to get by without a loved one’s full income, or whose loved ones had returned with a limb missing or nerves shattered, but still lacked long-term health benefits because they were reservists.  When we send our young men and women into harm’s way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they’re going, to care for their families while they’re gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world.
  19. May 2017
    1. the aesthetic benefits to the mental perks, there's a reason why 19 million people finished races in the US last year.

      statistically show the amount of people who finished races last year to show popularity of being a running.

    1. The new study focused on a group of more than 55,000 men and women ages 18 to 100. About a quarter of them were runners. Over 15 years, those who ran just 50 minutes a week or fewer at a moderate pace were less likely to die from either cardiovascular disease or any cause, compared with those who didn’t run at all.

      experimental proven evidence (ethos). also appeal to audience through people who are at risk for cardiovascular diseases/ other.

    2. Journal of the American College of Cardiology finds that even five to 10 minutes a day of low-intensity running is enough to extend life by several years, compared with not running at all. It shows that the minimal healthy “dose” of exercise is smaller than many people might assume.

      long term effects of running. builds ethos through cited evidence

    3. , but even the draft horses of the running world — slow and steady joggers — improve their health.

      uses an analogy to make an example.

    1. Many say they are at their most creative and lucid, even meditative, during their runs, as the worries of the day slip away.

      also connection to previous paragraph. promoting creativity

    2. Studies have found that healthy adults who exercise regularly are generally happier than those who don't.

      uses facts to show the mental health benefits of running.

    3. Running is among the best aerobic exercises for physical conditioning of your heart and lungs. Studies have shown the health benefits to be enormous, reducing the likelihood of everything from the common cold to cancer.

      reasons why its the best aerobic exercise.

  20. Feb 2017
    1. This slatemcnt soon became known in Maryland, and I had reason lo believe that an effort would be made to recapture me

      To perform his ethos puts him at risk.

    2. Narrative uf t/re Life uf Frederick Douglass, ai1 American Slave, Written by Himse!J:

      The criticisms above (that a narrative is not wholly true, that the autobiography is exaggerated, or combines the stories of multiple people) are common detractions aimed at autobiographical accounts, especially those concerning significant suffering. People want to know "did that all really happen," "did it happen exactly like he said it did," and "did this all really happen to him or is appropriating someone else's story to make his own life more exciting?" The bottom line, of course, is that those who are concerned with the factuality of every detail are missing the forest for the trees. Autobiographies in general (and slave narratives in particular) serve to demonstrate narratively patterns of human suffering and how they can be combatted.

    1. "Such is the literal translation of the \fo10v,I ! passage," and leaves it with the reader to make sort c,f the application, with the exclamation, "The reader \i\LC. 1~e,t\{ may make of it what he pleascs."

      In the Douglass piece someone made a comment about the ethos of the author. Here, the author seems to be asserting the truth, based on his knowledge as a translator, but then throwing in the towel when it comes to interpretation.

  21. Sep 2016
    1. a disease that I first diagnosed in 2002

      Omalu highlights his credibility in this sentence by drawing attention to the fact that he, himself, is a medical professional in the field that he is writing about.

    1. Creo en el pueblo Cubano.  I believe in the Cuban people.

      President Obama uses ethos here. His statements means that the Cuban people are the most important reason for change and that he believes they are the reason for the change.

    2. Creo en el pueblo Cubano.

      Obama addresses the cuban people directly letting them know he believes in them in Spanish. By doing this Obama establishes a common ground with the audience and makes himself seem sincere/ trustworthy about such claims.

  22. Aug 2016
  23. Feb 2016
    1. A very worthy person, a true lover of his courntry, and whose virtues Ihighly esteem, was lately pleased in discoursing on this matter to offer arefinement upon my scheme. He said that many gentlemen of this king-dom, having of late destroyed their deer, he conceived that the want ofvenison might be well supplied by the bodies of young lads and maidens,not exceeding fourteen years of age nor under twelve, so great a number ofboth sexes in every county being now ready to starve for want of work andservice; and these to be disposed of by their parents, if alive, or otherwiseby their nearest relations. But with due deference to so excellent a friendand so deserving a patriot, I cannot be altogether in his sentiments; for asto the males, my American acquainteance assured me from frequent expe-rience that their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of our school-boys, by continiual exercise, and their taste disagreeable; and to fattenthem would not answer the charge.

      Swift establishes ethos here through referring to a deer hunter so that he can draw a distinction between the hunter's advice and the advice of his "American acquaintance". Good counterargument.

    2. Ethos. If a "very worthy person,a true lover of his country" "offers refinement" toward Swift's scheme, it must have some credibility.

    3. I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance inLondon, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a mostdelicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked,or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or aragout*.

      Image Description

  24. Sep 2015
    1. a reckless infatuation that ended with the eruption and crash of the Hindenburg in 1937.

      Author does not mention it but he's the author of a book on the Hindenburg. Presumably this gives him the credentials to warn against modern-day zeppelllns.

  25. Feb 2014
    1. What intrigued me when I first walked into Neil’s living room was the concept of a collaboration- driven ethos , although at the time I had no idea what those words mean

      collaboration-driven ethos

    2. coming together to share an ethos : the combined set of beliefs, customs, and sentiment that flows between like-minded people.

      Collaboration-driven ethos: the combined set of beliefs, customs, and sentiment that flows between like-minded people.

  26. Oct 2013
    1. THE MAN WHOSE LIFE IS IN HARMONY WITH HIS TEACHING WILL TEACH WITH GREATER EFFECT.
    1. Of which opinion a great many writers say that Hesiod was, at least such writers as lived before Aristophanes the grammarian, for he was the first to deny that the Hypothecae, in which this opinion is found, was the work of that poet

      cultural references that require the present context for effectiveness. he uses a lot of these

    1. A third would be the proper method of delivery; this is a thing that affects the success of a speech greatly; but hitherto the subject has been neglected.

      invoking the ethos - style

    2. The second is how to set these facts out in language.

      with consideration to audience and purpose

    1. We can now see that a writer must disguise his art and give the impression of speaking naturally and not artificially. Naturalness is persuasive, artificiality is the contrary; for our hearers are prejudiced and think we have some design against them, as if we were mixing their wines for them.

      It is an interesting contradiction that naturalness is persuasive and artificiality contrary, but the rhetorician must use artificiality to create the naturalness that will persuade.

    1. after all, it is more fitting for a good man to display himself as an honest fellow than as a subtle reasoner."

      Ethos

    1. Clearly the orator will have to speak so as to bring his hearers into a frame of mind that will dispose them to anger, and to represent his adversaries as open to such charges and possessed of such qualities as do make people angry.
    1. good sense, good moral character, and goodwill.

      perceived good sense, etc.

    2. But since rhetoric exists to affect the giving of decisions -- the hearers decide between one political speaker and another, and a legal verdict is a decision -- the orator must not only try to make the argument of his speech demonstrative and worthy of belief; he must also make his own character look right and put his hearers, who are to decide, into the right frame of mind.
    1. This is especially important in a deliberative assembly. In the law courts it is especially important that he should be able to influence the emotions, or moral affections, of the jury who try the case.
    1. Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided. This kind of persuasion, like the others, should be achieved by what the speaker says, not by what people think of his character before he begins to speak. It is not true, as some writers assume in their treatises on rhetoric, that the personal goodness revealed by the speaker contributes nothing to his power of persuasion; on the contrary, his character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion he possesses.
    2. A statement is persuasive and credible either because it is directly self-evident or because it appears to be proved from other statements that are so

      Ethos

    3. There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions-that is, to name them and describe them, to know their causes and the way in which they are excited.

      Three means of persuasion: logos, pathos, and ethos.

    1. it has three divisions -- (1) the speaker's power of evincing a personal character which will make his speech credible (ethos ); (2) his power of stirring the emotions of his hearers (pathos ); (3) his power of proving a truth, or an apparent truth, by means of persuasive arguments (logos ).

      Three divisions.

    1. The truth is, as indeed we have said already, that rhetoric is a combination of the science of logic and of the ethical branch of politics; and it is partly like dialectic, partly like sophistical reasoning.
  27. Sep 2013
    1. It is now plain that when you wish to calm others you must draw upon these lines of argument

      The purpose of this chapter was to inform us of "calmnesses" roots and how we can evoke it in others.

    1. There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions-that is, to name them and describe them, to know their causes and the way in which they are excited.

      means of persuasion: ethos, logos, pathos

    2. Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself

      Are there really only three appeals, or do we fit everything else into these three labels because Aristotle laid it out that way?

    1. (1) the speaker's power of evincing a personal character which will make his speech credible (ethos );

      defining method of ethos

    2. (1) the speaker's power of evincing a personal character which will make his speech credible (ethos ); (2) his power of stirring the emotions of his hearers (pathos ); (3) his power of proving a truth, or an apparent truth, by means of persuasive arguments (logos )
    3. The political speaker will also appeal to the interest of his hearers, and this involves a knowledge of what is good. Definition and analysis of things "good."
    4. In urging his hearers to take or to avoid a course of action, the political orator must show that he has an eye to their happiness.

      Persuasive technique

    5. The former kind he must provide himself; and it has three divisions -- (1) the speaker's power of evincing a personal character which will make his speech credible (ethos ); (2) his power of stirring the emotions of his hearers (pathos ); (3) his power of proving a truth, or an apparent truth, by means of persuasive arguments (logos ). Hence rhetoric may be regarded as an offshoot of dialectic, and also of ethical (or political) studies.
    1. There are three things which inspire confidence in the orator's own character -- the three, namely, that induce us to believe a thing apart from any proof of it: good sense, good moral character, and goodwill

      how to build ethos/components of character

    2. he must also make his own character look right and put his hearers, who are to decide, into the right frame of mind

      How do we make this happen when audiences are so varied?

    1. (1) make his own character look right and (2) put his hearers, who are to decide, into the right frame of mind. As to his own character; he should make his audience feel that he possesses prudence, virtue, and goodwill.
    1. Now it often happens that a man will admit an act, but will not admit the prosecutor's label for the act nor the facts which that label implies. He will admit that he took a thing but not that he "stole" it; that he struck some one first, but not that he committed "outrage"; that he had intercourse with a woman, but not that he committed "adultery"; that he is guilty of theft, but not that he is guilty of "sacrilege," the object stolen not being consecrated; that he has encroached, but not that he has "encroached on State lands"; that he has been in communication with the enemy, but not that he has been guilty of "treason."
    2. The man who is guilty of adultery or assault is doing wrong to some definite person; the man who avoids service in the army is doing wrong to the community.
    1. Again, a man's crime is worse if he has been the first man, or the only man, or almost the only man, to commit it: or if it is by no means the first time he has gone seriously wrong in the same way: or if his crime has led to the thinking-out and invention of measures to prevent and punish similar crimes

      An interesting point. Public outrage sets the initial tone, but lessens as the same crime is committed. Furthermore, that last bit about invention of measure to prevent and punish goes both ways. It allows a representative (also read: Lawyer, Rhetorician) to additionally devise further methods of acquittal.

    1. You may consider your crimes as bringing you solid profit, while their punishment is nothing more than being called bad names. Or the opposite argument may appeal to you: your crimes may bring you some credit (thus you may, incidentally, be avenging your father or mother, like Zeno), whereas the punishment may amount to a fine, or banishment, or something of that sort.
    2. They are not likely to be found out if their appearance contradicts the charges that might be brought against them: for instance, a weakling is unlikely to be charged with violent assault, or a poor and ugly man with adultery.
    1. But now, instead of the acclaim which I expected, I have been rewarded with trials and perils and envy and calumny
    2. Well, then, whom ought you to believe? Those who know intimately both my words and my character, or a sycophant who knows nothing about me at all, but has chosen to make me his victim?

      Persuasion from ethos by using a comparison.

    3. You can judge this from my habits of life, from which, indeed, you can get at the truth much better than from the lips of my accusers; for no one is, I think, blind to the fact that all people are wont to spend their time in the places where they elect to gain their livelihood. And you will observe that those who live upon your contracts and the litigation connected with them are all but domiciled in the courts of law, while no one has ever seen me either at the council-board, or at the preliminaries,35 or in the courts,36 or before the arbitrators 37; on the contrary, I have kept aloof from all these more than any of my fellow-citizens

      A sort of mix of ethos and logos. He attempts to build up his own credibility using reason.

    4. My accuser has mentioned also the friendship which existed between me and Timotheus,60 and has attempted to calumniate us both, nor did any sense of shame restrain him from saying slanderous and utterly infamous things about a man who is dead, to whom Athens is indebted for many services.

      Oh, Isocrates. You name dropper! Is this the opposite of Guilty by association? He does group himself with the bloke then praises him. Ethos, I choose you!

    5. show to them and to posterity the truth about my character, my life, and the education to which I am devoted, and not suffer myself to be condemned on these issues without a trial nor to remain, as I had just been, at the mercy of my habitual calumniators.

      An appeal to justice and mercy. This is effective in building a relationship with the audience because they can relate to being wronged and wrongly accused of something without the opportunity to explain themselves.

    6. I consider that this kind of life is more agreeable than that of men who are busy with a multitude of things, and that it is, besides, more in keeping with the career to which I have dedicated myself from the first

      Establishes his motivations as trustworthy

    7. Uses a quote so he doesn't have to say these things about himself, gives him more credibility, less prideful, more easily accepted from outside source

    8. Be assured, therefore, that you shall hear from me the whole truth, and in this spirit give me your attention.

      Building credibility, trying to appeal to truth, honesty, relate to audience

    9. The two-faced nature of Athenian justice?

    10. a true image of my thought and of my whole life; for I hoped that this would serve both as the best means of making known the truth about me and, at the same time, as a monument, after my death, more noble than statues of bronze

      Can we trust a "true image" of Isocrates if it is written by himself? Especially if his goal is to be remembered as noble and great?

    11. novel and differen

      generating interest

    12. I who have lived to this advanced age without complaint from anyone could not be in greater jeopardy if I had wronged all the world.

      Reoccuring theme: referencing his age and (up till now) his innocent dealings throughout his life.

    13. I beg you, then, neither to credit nor to discredit what has been said to you until you have heard to the end what I also have to say

      Ethos appeal.

    14. nevertheless I have never deigned to defend myself against their attempts to belittle me, because I considered that their foolish babble had no influence whatever and that I had, myself, made it manifest to all that I had elected to speak and write, not on petty disputes, but on subjects so important and so elevated9 that no one would attempt them except those who had studied with me, and their would-be imitators.
    1. I think all intelligent people will agree with me

      appeal to ethos

    2. "Why, if they were to sell any other commodity for so trifling a fraction of its worth they would not deny their folly;

      Asserting that if the education were as valuable as they claim, they would charge accordingly, hence the falsity of the claim is evident.

    3. When, therefore, the layman puts all these things together and observes that the teachers of wisdom and dispensers of happiness are themselves in great want but exact only a small fee from their students, that they are on the watch for contradictions in words(10) but are blind to inconsistencies in deeds,

      An appealing to the ethos of the common man, argues that they do not lead by example; knowledge vs. experience. There is no apparent evidence that the "goods" will as claimed produce happiness and prosperity, since the Sophists are essentially vagabonds. Further, claims their own deeds are inscrutable in attempting to secure payment up front, so how can they impart scruples, let alone, truth and wisdom?

    4. For it is not to be supposed that men who are honorable and just-dealing with others will be dishonest with the very preceptors who have made them what they are.

      Asserting that requiring payment be held in advance is unethical.

    5. Homer, who has been conceded the highest reputation for wisdom, has pictured even the gods as at times debating among themselves about the future(5) --not that he knew their minds but that he desired to show us that for mankind this power lies in the realms of the impossible.

      This is an example of ethos. Isocrates is appealing to the authority, or high regard in those days, of Homer to suggest that even the gods don't know everything. Therefore, no man can claim to either. This is like using a celebrity to endorse a product. In this instance, Isocrates uses Homer as if Homer would also frown down upon the 'other' Sophist teachers, so everyone else should too.

    6. But in order that I may not appear to be breaking down the pretensions of others while myself making greater claims than are within my powers, I believe that the very arguments by which I myself was convinced will make it clear to others also that these things are true.

      He calls on his own studies, calling them the "very arguments by which I myself was convinced" and relies on his knowledge to deem his words true.

    7. More than that, they do not attribute any of this power either to the practical experience or to the native ability of the student, but undertake to transmit the science of discourse as simply as they would teach the letters of the alphabet, not having taken trouble to examine into the nature of each kind of knowledge, but thinking that because of the extravagance of their promises they themselves will command admiration and the teaching of discourse will be held in higher esteem--oblivious of the fact that the arts are made great, not by those who are without scruple in boasting about them, but by those who are able to discover all of the resources which each art affords.

      Is this saying that the teachers lack ethos, or credibility, to teach discourses more complicated than the alphabet?

    8. Formal training makes such men more skilfull and more resourceful in discovering the possibilities of a subject;

      Further empowering the academy

    9. For myself, I should have preferred above great riches that philosophy had as much power as these men claim; for, possibly, I should not have been the very last in the profession nor had the least share in its profits. But since it has no such power, I could wish that this prating might cease. For I note that the bad repute which results therefrom does not affect the offenders only, but that all the rest of us who are in the same profession share in the opprobium.

      So is this the part wherein we're supposed to believe that he teaches philosophy just because? If it's not money, what then? A cadre of students that bend ears in pursuit of propagating their own teachings?

      Or is it jealousy?

    10. For they are themselves so stupid and conceive others to be so dull that, although the speeches which they compose are worse than those which some laymen improvise

      Again with the laymen used as the measuring stick. Also more seething animosity between what I still presume is the academy and now everyone else, apparently.

    11. When, therefore, the layman puts all these things together and observes that the teachers of wisdom and dispensers of happiness are themselves in great want but exact only a small fee from their students, that they are on the watch for contradictions in words(10) but are blind to inconsistencies in deeds, and that, further , they pretend to have knowledge of the future" but are incapable either of saying anything pertinent or of giving any counsel regarding the present, and when he observes that those who follow their judgements are more consistent and more successful4 than those who profess to have exact knowledge, then he has, I think, good reason to contemn such studies and regard them as stuff and nonsense, and not as a true discipline of the soul.

      I find interesting that he keeps returning to this point that even the layman can see through the ruses of the Sophists, or at least has the capacity to do so. It gives the idea that those that are actually learning from the Sophists are far below the common denominator of intelligence. Beyond saving perhaps?

    12. although they set so insignificant a price on the whole stock of virtue and happiness, they pretend to wisdom and assume the right to instruct the rest of the world.

      I'm seeing a lot of us versus them mentality in the undertones. Curious, though, does Isocrates opt to teach just for the hell of it? For the good of the many? Or is he and the academy being undercut by the sophists?

    1. To this however the many cannot attain; and they blame the strong man because they are ashamed of their own weakness, which they desire to conceal, and hence they say that intemperance is base.

      The elitist perspective, which assumes that people rise and fall in positions of power and fortune through some unseen force of nature.

    2. When Polus was speaking of the conventionally dishonourable, you assailed him from the point of view of nature; for by the rule of nature,

      Accused Socrates of tricking Polus by shifting his position in order to trip him up. Basically saying that he sees through Socrates' game and questioning his character.

    3. And therefore when you and I are agreed, the result will be the attainment of perfect truth.

      Socrates considers Callicles to be an equal.

    1. Accordingly the barbarian assailant deserves to meet with barbarous assault, by speech and custom and deed--deserves to be blamed in speech, dishonored by custom, and penalized indeed. She who was forced and bereft of fatherland and orphaned of friends--how is she not to be pitied rather than reviled? For he did terrible things; she was the victim; it is accordingly fair to pity her and hate him.

      Vilifying an imaginary perpetrator and portraying her as (a "possible") victim . Seems to be intending to stir up some pathos and appeal to ethos.

    2. The order proper to a city is being well-manned; to a body, beauty; to a soul, wisdom; to a deed, excellence; and to a discourse, truth--and the opposites of these are disorder. And the praiseworthy man and woman and discourse and work and city-state and deed one must honor with praise, while one must assign blame to the unworthy--for it is equal error and ignorance to blame the praiseworthy and to praise the blameworthy.

      Appeal to ethos

    3. For just as different drugs draw off different humors from the body, and some put an end to disease and others to life, so too of discourses: some give pain, others delight, others terrify, others rouse the hearers to courage, and yet others by a certain vile persuasion drug and trick the soul.

      Drugs also attain their effects based on how the body fight them (not related to the drug itself, a body response to change). The more you know starswoosh This also applies to the writing. We can trick ourselves by the reasoning we use.