Intonation

Aristotle has written many different discussions in many different sections about one specific topic: Style. How you form it, how you personalize it, how you use it to enhance your argument, you name it- he’s covered it all. Most of the advice, however, had been about the format or flow of the style, and not the intonation, which is why Aristotle dedicated a section solely to the subject.

Usually, Aristotle centers his thoughts around the importance of using the right words, arranging them to best persuade your audience, and including writing enhancements such as metaphors, maxims, or examples. What he talks about in this section is how you speak these words. He tells us to sound dramatic when delivering a dramatic argument, sincere when talking about a subject of great importance, passionate when calling people to action, and caring when garnering sympathy from your audience. The tone of your voice can completely change the reaction of listeners, and it can be used to achieve the reaction you desire. It embodies the vibe of your argument and it plays a crucial part in oratorical arguments. Just as it can improve your argument, Aristotle warns us against the problems misuse of intonation can cause: imagine a speaker using a tone of caring and compassion when trying to rally an army- it would pretty much defeat the whole purpose. He says this not to discourage use of intonation, but to encourage thoughtful use of it.

God’s Great & Just Compassion

What a wonderful statement to start off with. This reminder of His compassion settles our hearts when we remember His amazing atributes. Anselm started off a paragraph with this sentence, and carried on the theme throughout- telling us that God’s compassion is “So great and so consistent with his holiness, as to be incomparably above anything that can be conceived,” just like His love, grace, strength, mercy, etc.

This reminder of God’s great and just qualities comes comes just in time for Thanksgiving. During this holiday, we give thanks many things: friends, family, health, a home, salvation. We wouldn’t be giving thanks for these blessings, however, without God’s great and just compassion. All of these blessings are from Him, freely and lovingly given to His children. During Thanksgiving, we Christians need to thank the Giver of these blessings, first and most importantly, and remember His great and just attributes.

Got? Seriously?

As you may very well know, Aristotle is experienced and knowledgeable in the realm of writing and rhetoric. Whether it’s creating persuasive arguments or giving eloquent speeches, he knows his stuff. Not only that, but he’s pretty good at the grammar portion of language as well.

However, no one is immune to mistakes. Everyone makes them, but you’d think that Aristotle would’ve caught this one: “…that liveliness is got by using…” Aristotle, Greek philosopher and rhetorician, just used got as the verb form for this sentence, instead of gained or achieved. Just taking the time to read this sentence out loud would reveal this blaring mistake! How this ever passed by his thorough scrutiny befuddles me.

Never Turn Aside

Anselm has put a lot of time and effort into explaining to us why Christ’s life paid for our sins and why this is so important. In explaining why this was necessary and had to happen, he emphasized the pain Christ had to go through for us- the violence, torture, and crucifixion- and reminded us that through all of it He maintained strict holiness. He didn’t bow out or give in, and never turned aside because of what He had to give.

Through this, He sets the perfect example of how Christians should act: “..they should never turn aside from the holiness due to God on account of personal sacrifice.” There will be times when God asks something of us that requires us to make a sacrifice. Whether it’s time, money, or comfort, we should be ready to give it away to serve the Lord- He is our highest priority. We should never turn away from serving the Lord because it requires sacrifice.

It’s actually “Pluck the Day”

While reading Aristotle’s Rhetoric, I ran across a sentence of that sounded quite familiar.

Aristotle is writing about, well, writing in this section. To be specific, he is discussing “the way to devise lively and taking sayings,” i.e. metaphors and similes. In this he tells us to “seize a new idea,” which immediately reminded me of the Latin phrase carpe diem, which means “seize the day” in English. Out of curiosity, I decided to translate Aristotle’s phrase into Latin and found myself slightly puzzled: “occupare novum idea” wasn’t exactly what I expected (I thought that carpe would’ve been in there somewhere).

With a bit more research, I discovered that breaking down the phrases and inspecting the singular words yielded different results than the whole phrases themselves. Carpe = pluck, and occupare = seize, while their phrases mean “seize the day” and “seize a new idea,” respectively. It’s interesting how the same meaning is conveyed by two different words, but even more interesting is the fact that carpe diem actually translates to “pluck the day.”

With God

“With God there is neither necessity nor impossibility..”

This is something Anselm mentioned in his writings. Closely following it was “For all necessity and impossibility is under his control.” Through the struggles of life, we must remember that God has us in His hands. Even though life seems impossible in the moment, He has control of our situation. With Him, “..all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26) God has plans for your future: plans to prosper you, keep you safe, and give you hope (Jeremiah 29:11). He knows everything to come, and intends to guide  you through it; whatever rough patches you encounter are there to refine you and build your faith, not harm you. God uses trials and tribulations to refine you through fire (Isaiah 48:10), but tells us not to be discouraged, and instead “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” (Romans 12:12) Through the difficult times He is always there. Trusting Him is not always easy, but He knows what you will benefit from: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

During the many pains of life, God is with us- leading us, loving us, holding us, and refining us. We only have to put our trust in Him, and remember that with God, there is no impossible.

Follow Along

In one of the parts of Book III in Aristotle’s Rhetoric, the author addresses what I translate as run-ons. Not just the grammatically incorrect sentences, but the way one writes: a “free-running style.” Writing continuously and monotonously with no set stopping point is what Aristotle takes issue with, but instead of attacking this style he presents an alternative called “compact style.” This writing structure is set with a beginning and an end, and outfitted with periods and paragraphs to improve readability. This language style is easy to follow and satisfying to read. Unlike free-running style, it has a goal in mind and leaves the reader feeling like he understood the concept and reached a conclusion. As well as being more easily remembered, this compact style is more efficient when it comes to getting your point across. Ergo, I see no reason why compact style shouldn’t be used when writing an argumentative or persuasive paper.

Answering your own questions

Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo uses a question-answer format that is ideal for pursuing reasons and developing arguments. To better simulate an actual conversation, Anselm asks himself questions through a character of sorts named “Boso.” Usually, a question is asked and then answered in a straightforward fashion; just recently, though, Anselm employed a different method: using Boso’s question to answer itself. It required a bit of development, but Anselm pointed out that the answer was already in the question. Sometimes, with the prompting and guidance of a mentor, we can reach our conclusion through our answer. We may even be able to answer our own inquiries in the process of asking. This is a perfect example of how the human mind works, and how capable it can be- being able to introduce new information to the brain just by logical reasoning. Answering your own questions is such a fascinating and intriguing process of the human mind.

Aristotle talks about Rhythm

Language is a very important topic to Aristotle, especially elegant yet convincing language. Under this deliverance of language falls rhythm, to which he dedicates a few paragraphs on do’s and don’ts.

The whole focus of this section on rhythm is that the form of a prose composition should be neither “metrical nor destitute of rhythm.” In other words, not robotic and not strictly poetic. Don’t get me wrong- using ornate language can, when used correctly, bolster and enhance your writing. However, this attempt at embellishment often turns a wonderful composition into an unwanted poetry piece.  On the other hand, Aristotle warns us about doing the exact opposite- writing void of rhythm. This choppy, monotonous tone is sometimes the result of trying to avoid extremely poetic writing. The last thing you’d want in your writing is to sound like a robot (unless, of course, you sound like C-3PO or the Terminator).

Aristotle’s final note on rhythm sums up what he discussed in the segment: “We have now seen that our language must be rhythmical and not destitute of rhythm, and what rhythms, in what particular shape, make it so.” What really gets me about this last sentence is not the message it brings but the awkward, clumsy rhythm it presents.

To God be the Glory

After each explanation of a new topic, Boso tells Anselm how thoroughly it was explained and how well Anselm has brought him to understanding. His most recent of these, spoken after Anselm clarified how the Word only can unite in one person with man, was “The way by which you lead me is so guarded by reason that I cannot deviate from it to the right or left.” This sounded a bit familiar to me, even before the reply: “It is not I who lead you, but He of whom we are speaking, without Whose guidance we have no power to keep the way of truth.” The way Anselm took the praise he was given and gave it to God reminded me of Psalm 115:1, which says “Not to us, LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.” We are subtly reminded here that the success we have is God-given, and the compliments or praise we receive for “our work” should be rightly pointed to God- all of our work is His. Not only will giving the glory to Him give God the honor and respect He deserves, it will give us a chance to minister and shine God’s light in the world.