MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
TODAY’S post is, in my mind, the perfect segue from yesterday’s post, THE RETURN OF THE KING, given the King never returned and hopefully won’t anytime in the future. Still, there’s a certain veracity and candor hidden within yesterday’s and today’s post.
The ancient Greeks, our historical fore-fathers and -mothers gave us a solipsistic truism: Truth value exists within only one of the five classic appeals to humanity: logos. An appeal to reason and logic, a logos appeal is “true” only when the intent of the speaker or writer is pure, the arguments are appropriate and the evidence solid. In form, but not intent, or appropriateness, or solidly evidenced, it has been used to perpetrate some of the most egregious falsehoods ever. Recall for a moment ex-President Bush’s near perfect formal logos appeal to go to war with Iraq which, while appropriately argued, was based on a personal grudge against Saddam Hussein and used engineered evidence. Many died as a result. Still, honest, appropriate, well-evidenced logos has the power of truth inherent in its appeal.
The second appeal, pathos (an appeal to emotion), has no truth value, but it does have an important purpose. When there is insufficiently clear intent, arguments or evidence — as with much in this life, like, for example, choosing a mate — our emotions can serve as a decision guide, based as they are on everything we’ve individually experienced thus far. But as the character Commander Spock in StarTrek was wont to say, one must control one’s emotions lest they control you.
The third appeal, ethos (an appeal to morality or religion), sadly, also has no truth value, the “problem” being that ethics, morality and religion are products of their times and culture. They are impermanent and changeable, though more slowly than emotions. They are typically more a reflection of consistency than truth.
The fourth appeal, keiros (an appeal based on a popular authority) again has no truth value. More enduring than emotions but less so than ethics, morality or religion, popular figures as are commonly being presented on social media, come and go over time (the kernel of truth), but having a typically monetary “purpose,” rarely if ever fully encompass truth.
The fifth appeal, numos or nomos (appeal to the law) is a powerful governmental appeal, but outside a particular government (and often inside if the law is imperfect), it again has no enduring truth value. Laws come and go, depending on the people doing the governing and being governed. Numos or nomos, can, however, be seen to, on occasion, represent the momentary needs, wants and desires of the governing and governed.
In short, in my opinion, what 2020 has suffered by and from is the lack of good logos appeal. Business, which typically incorporates all five appeals as well as numerous logical fallacies in what it calls advertising and marketing, and idealizes the acquisition of money, has little if any intrinsic truth value. I struggled with this issue in THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor. If money and power are the illusions I claim and try so hard to so point out by outright exaggeration in the novel, then what will replace (or, in the case of the novel, has already replaced) them?
The Edge of Madness
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
Business, I think, isn’t capable of good governing, and should never be permitted to monetize government. The same is the case, I think, regarding critical social issues like health care, care of widows and orphans, social security and education — to name a but a few. Business by its nature is inhumane. Recognizing this, acknowledging it, and dealing with it are the three biggest issues, in my mind, of 2021.
The ancient Greeks, our historical fore-fathers and -mothers gave us a solipsistic truism: Truth value exists within only one of the five classic appeals to humanity: logos. An appeal to reason and logic, a logos appeal is “true” only when the intent of the speaker or writer is pure, the arguments are appropriate and the evidence solid. In form, but not intent, or appropriateness, or solidly evidenced, it has been used to perpetrate some of the most egregious falsehoods ever. Recall for a moment ex-President Bush’s near perfect formal logos appeal to go to war with Iraq which, while appropriately argued, was based on a personal grudge against Saddam Hussein and used engineered evidence. Many died as a result. Still, honest, appropriate, well-evidenced logos has the power of truth inherent in its appeal.
The second appeal, pathos (an appeal to emotion), has no truth value, but it does have an important purpose. When there is insufficiently clear intent, arguments or evidence — as with much in this life, like, for example, choosing a mate — our emotions can serve as a decision guide, based as they are on everything we’ve individually experienced thus far. But as the character Commander Spock in StarTrek was wont to say, one must control one’s emotions lest they control you.
The third appeal, ethos (an appeal to morality or religion), sadly, also has no truth value, the “problem” being that ethics, morality and religion are products of their times and culture. They are impermanent and changeable, though more slowly than emotions. They are typically more a reflection of consistency than truth.
The fourth appeal, keiros (an appeal based on a popular authority) again has no truth value. More enduring than emotions but less so than ethics, morality or religion, popular figures as are commonly being presented on social media, come and go over time (the kernel of truth), but having a typically monetary “purpose,” rarely if ever fully encompass truth.
The fifth appeal, numos or nomos (appeal to the law) is a powerful governmental appeal, but outside a particular government (and often inside if the law is imperfect), it again has no enduring truth value. Laws come and go, depending on the people doing the governing and being governed. Numos or nomos, can, however, be seen to, on occasion, represent the momentary needs, wants and desires of the governing and governed.
In short, in my opinion, what 2020 has suffered by and from is the lack of good logos appeal. Business, which typically incorporates all five appeals as well as numerous logical fallacies in what it calls advertising and marketing, and idealizes the acquisition of money, has little if any intrinsic truth value. I struggled with this issue in THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor. If money and power are the illusions I claim and try so hard to so point out by outright exaggeration in the novel, then what will replace (or, in the case of the novel, has already replaced) them?
The Edge of Madness
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
Business, I think, isn’t capable of good governing, and should never be permitted to monetize government. The same is the case, I think, regarding critical social issues like health care, care of widows and orphans, social security and education — to name a but a few. Business by its nature is inhumane. Recognizing this, acknowledging it, and dealing with it are the three biggest issues, in my mind, of 2021.
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