Braniff Graduate School

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14026/2073

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Browsing Braniff Graduate School by Author "Dr. Gregory Roper"

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    An Art of Rhetorical Listening: Aristotleâ s Treatment of Audience in the Rhetoric
    (2021-04-01T00:00:00-07:00) Schmidt, Christopher; Dr. Scott Crider; Dr. Gregory Roper; Dr. Joshua Parens
    For Aristotle, the art of rhetoricâ an ability to see what is persuasive in any given caseâ is a matter both of speaking and of listening, of persuading and of judging persuasive speeches. Rhetorical artists may exercise their theoretical powers for the sake of productive activity, discovering persuasive arguments to deploy in the courtroom and the assembly, or they may use those same powers to judge the validity or political utility of other speakersâ arguments, â seeingâ the difference between the persuasive and the â apparently persuasive.â This conception of rhetorical artistry is consistent with Aristotleâ s teaching about arts generally. In the Physics and the Metaphysics, Aristotle distinguishes between technÄ , which is a rational and theoretical capacity, and poiÄ sis, which is a productive activity. In the Politics, he advises free people to study the arts, not so that they may please audiences or clients with their artifacts (which is a vulgar pursuit), but so that they may become better judges of othersâ works (a liberal one). Consistent with this conception of receptive and evaluative artistry, the Rhetoric analyzes topics, proofs, enthymeme, and metaphor from both the speaker and the audienceâ s perspectives, showing how one may be rhetorically artistic both as a speaker and as a judge. The dialectical arrangement of the Rhetoric trains Aristotleâ s students and readers in this art of rhetorical listening, teaching them to see not only the available â meansâ of persuasion, but also persuasionâ s material, formal, and final causes.
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    The Consolation of Dulness: The Influence of Boethius on Pope's Dunciad
    (2021-10-01T00:00:00-07:00) Peterson, Clarke; Dr. Steven Stryer; Dr. Gregory Roper
    Alexander Popeâ s Dunciad explicitly draws from major literary and philosophical texts ranging from the Bible to The Aeneid to Paradise Lost, but scholars have heretofore not observed how The Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius shapes and informs the text. After establishing the historical fact that Pope read and seriously engaged with Boethius, my thesis endeavors to establish a few key ways in which some of The Dunciadâ s most famous puzzles are elucidated when read with an eye to The Consolation. Specifically, my thesis contends that the character of Lady Philosophy was one of the progenitor images Pope drew upon when inventing the goddess Dulness, just as the character-Boethius informed his descriptions of Tibbald and Cibber. Likewise, I argue that the Mock-Heroic Games of The Dunciad, Book II can be understood as the duncesâ attempt to obtain satisfaction in the â Lesser Goodsâ delineated by Boethius in The Consolation, Book III, i.e. bodily goods, pleasure, wealth, fame, honor, and power. Furthermore, I propose that the problem of the ivory gate at the end of Book III can be resolved by reading Tibbald/Cibberâ s vision of the underworld as directly opposed to a Boethian understanding of fate and providence. Finally, I suggest that the â Problem of Powerâ in The Dunciad is satisfactorily answered by a Boethian understanding of the relationship between power and virtue.