The Academic Discourse Community Perpetuates Racist and Classist Barriers

A discourse community is essentially the social sphere and accompanying genre of rhetoric in which a – generally textual – discussion takes place. For example, one is likely to use different word choice and grammatical conventions when writing a professional resume for a job application, versus when writing a text to one’s best friend, due …

Google’s Bias

In New York Magazine’s 2017 article, “Google’s Dangerous Identity Crisis,” social media blogger, Brian Feldman, primarily utilizes an appeal to logos in order to convey the fallacies in Google’s search algorithm. He begins the article with an appeal to logos through a rhetorical question: “is Obama planning a coup?” Feldman responds to this inquiry with several …

Rachel Dolezal’s “Transracialism”: How One Person Undermined Three Cultures

In 2015, after public speculation, civil rights activist Rachel Dolezal came out as “transracial.” From her perspective, she was essentially “assigned white at birth,” though she believed herself to be black. Following her brash claim, she experienced public backlash and further debate. In one defense, Rachel Dolezal compared her “struggle” with race and transracial identity …

Language Cannot be Productive Unless the Culture Surrounding its Use Changes

Humans’ individuality makes them unique – enabling incredible art, exceptional and distinct inventions, and infinite fascinating perspectives. However, this subjectivity also causes them to have inherent biases, make errors in logic, and have the ability to manipulate their words. Therefore – though it allows an extraordinary diversity of contributions – individualized free will can serve …

Casey’s Rhetorical Tools in Analyzing Trump’s Use of Critical Tools

New York Times author, Casey Williams, poses a question in his opinion-editorial piece: “Has Trump Stolen Philosophy’s Critical Tools?” Through appeals to ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos, he analyzes the inability to be purely objective, in conjunction with Trump’s manipulation of this relationship with the truth. With the use of assorted rhetorical devices, he stresses …

The Discussion on Bullshit

In his paper, Rhetoric and Bullshit, James Fredal summarizes and responds to the discussion on Harry Frankfurt’s concept: bullshit. Fredal primarily makes an appeal to ethos, but also makes appeals to logos and kairos. He begins the article with an appeal to ethos and kairos, introducing the term taurascatics, in reference to Harry Frankfurt’s start …

Does Doublespeak Belong in Democracy?

Doublespeak – a concept originating from concepts in George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984 – as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, refers to “deliberately euphemistic, ambiguous, or obscure language.” In his article, Rhetoric and Bullshit, James Fredal cites examples of vernacular used to refer to government activities, strategically understating the damage inflicted upon its citizens. Moreover, …

Can Language Describe?

In J.L. Austin’s “Performative Utterances” he explains that performative utterances are statements that have further implications than their surface-level denotation. These utterances generally require some further action and – much like bullshit – are neither true nor false. In building his argument Austin references what is known as a descriptive fallacy. This fallacy argues that …

Harry Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit”

In his publication, “On Bullshit,” Harry Frankfurt thoroughly deconstructs the colloquial term, bullshit, in order to bring attention to the prevalence of bullshit in society and help readers better understand this phenomenon. He primarily does this through rhetorical appeals to both ethos and logos, although occasionally utilizing an appeal to pathos. Frankfurt begins the article …