many of you mention that enthymemes tend to escape you a bit. So, please read this explanation about enthymemes. The instructions for what you need to do are toward the bottom.
1) Rhetorical Enthymeme Explanation
2) Enthymeme explained in literary function
3) professors Explanation…
Enthymeme comes from thymos, “spirit,” the capacity by which people think and feel. The Greeks located the thymos in the center of the body. Therefore, enthymemes were supposed to grab people in the gut. The enthymeme is to rhetoric what the syllogism is to logic: Both begin with a general premise and proceed to a particular case. The syllogism is concerned with certainties, while the enthymeme deals with probable knowledge.
Example of an ENTHYMEME
Major Premise: All Athenians love to argue.
Minor Premise: Socrates is an Athenian.
Conclusion: Socrates loves to argue.
Important Distinctions:
The degree of certainty in the major premise is stronger in the syllogism than it is in the enthymeme. Also, the enthymeme suggests the less rigorous logical context of oratory. As a result, enthymemes can be drawn from three kinds of premises: Probabilities, Signs (fallible and infallible), Examples
Probabilities are arguments that are generally true and contain an element of cause:
Since “sons tend to love their mothers, Orestes will love his mother.”
Signs are propositions setting forth a reason for the existence of a particular fact:
“The fact that he breathes fast is sign that he has a fever.”-Fallible
“The fact that he has a fever is a sign that he is ill.” -Infallible
Examples use one or more parallel cases to reach a general rule to argue the case in point:
Johnson came out of the MTh program at Whattsammata U and was unqualified. Let’s not hire this other graduate of WU.
IMPORTANT: Enthymemes are powerful because they are based in community beliefs. Because of this, whether the reasoning in an enthymeme is sound or whether the statements it contains are true, sadly enough, often make little difference to the community’s acceptance of the argument. Enthymemes work when listeners or readers participate in constructing the argument-that is, if their prior knowledge is part of the argument, they are inclined to accept the entire argument if they are willing to accept the rhetorician’s use of their common, prior knowledge. For this reason, enthymematic arguments do not have to be spelled out completely. The rhetorician may omit premises or conclusions. The audience will enjoy supplying the missing premises for themselves and may be more readily persuaded by the argument because they have participated in its construction. It also leaves a great deal of room for extremism and danger when it comes to how people will take an enthymeme and run with it.
Part Two Directions:
Rhetors who use enthymemes, examples, maxims, and signs need to be alert to attitudes that are widely held in the culture that surrounds them. They need to watch television, read newspapers and books, listen to popular music, political speeches, and the conversations of their friends and relatives. This attentiveness should generate a long list of enthymematic premises, examples, maxims, and signs that can be used to good effect in arguments.
Your Goal is to Complete two tasks:
First, find a single political campaign that has published information or website or both (best). Look at how they are using rhetoric and locate one enthymeme. Write it out and explain to me why it is an enthymeme. Be clear and identify how it meets the criteria. Your last comment is … now that you are looking at it as an enthymeme, how persuasive is it to you? How ethical is the message?
Second, I want you to create an enthymeme as an argument based on what we have discovered about democracy or any of the readings to date. See if you can find a historical example that supports your position, and include it. Think about what messages historically have been said about America, Democracy, Freedom, etc. What ideas can you latch on to that have been popular opinions that have often been misleading. Once you create your enthymeme, explain it as an enthymeme for me. Finally, tell me if you would be comfortable trying to let people run with the idea/argument that you have just created.
