Author Archives: insignificantwrangler@gmail.com

Yeah, We Already Knew That

Via the Blogora today, a piece in Newsweek on evolution and irrationality. It probably shouldn’t irk me that the piece makes no mention of rhetoricians, but it does (its got philosophers and cognitive scientists, but no rhetoricians). Its clear the … Continue reading

Posted in burke, emotion, irrationality, lingis, pathos | Comments Off on Yeah, We Already Knew That

Blogging Pedagogy & Academically Adrift

Today is the final day of my summer Expository Writing class. I build all of my classes around themes; this semester was dedicated to blogging. Mxrk, Ryan P. Weber, and I will be putting together an article dedicated to the … Continue reading

Posted in academically-adrift, blogging, blogging-class, expos, reading-notes | Comments Off on Blogging Pedagogy & Academically Adrift

Zakaria and Political Reality

I missed a post yesterday, so two posts today. First, a brief comment on Zakarias’ article “How Conservatism Has Lost Touch with Reality. A friend has a rather scathing response to Zakarias over at his blog, arguing that Zakarias is … Continue reading

Posted in latour, levinas, politics, problems-b-us, rhetoric, sophistry, ulmer, zakarias | Comments Off on Zakaria and Political Reality

A Troll Who Cares–Jonathon Paige & the Ethics of Blogging

Day two of my effort to put something here everyday. Today I point to a very interesting post sent to me by mxrk, one that relates to our blogging class/project/article. An internet troll details how he created Jonathon Paige’s twitter … Continue reading

Posted in ethics, ethos, nussbaum, rickert | Comments Off on A Troll Who Cares–Jonathon Paige & the Ethics of Blogging

Jameson’s New Book

Blogora’s sporting a link to Jameson’s preview of his upcoming book today. I’ve never considered myself a Marxist nor a fan of Jameson, but I nod my head to this paragraph from the preview: Now we can step back and … Continue reading

Posted in critique, jameson, marx, rickert | Comments Off on Jameson’s New Book

No Life Is Good

In The Philosopher’s Magazine, David Benetar argues that “No Life is Good.” A cynical (and, I hope, playful) argument against the mechanical life. His conclusion isn’t to kill yourself, just to stop having babies (and thus bringing more people destined … Continue reading

Posted in blogging, meaning-of-life, nussbaum, philosophy | Comments Off on No Life Is Good

Insane Job Add

Blogora has a link to The Philosophy Smoker’s discussion of a crazy philosophy job add. Two things: I can’t wait until we all bow down before work with corporate sponsors. Are visiting associate positions even real?

Posted in corporate-university, education, nussbaum | Comments Off on Insane Job Add

Burke, Sophistry, and Ecological Rhetoric

I wrote this in response to a graduate students’ project on Kenneth Burke. I didn’t want to lose it, so I’ll stick it here: Burke shares quite a bit with the Sophists because they both believe that rhetoric is metaphysical, … Continue reading

Posted in burke, ecological-rhetoric, ooo, sophistry, theory | Comments Off on Burke, Sophistry, and Ecological Rhetoric

Its Crap

Today I learned that a friend from grad school–a dedicated high school teacher–lost his job yesterday, along with about 80 other teachers, when his town voted against a tax increase. To echo David Harvey’s conclusion to his RSAnimate talk, “its … Continue reading

Posted in education, harvey, politics, RSA, sharing | Comments Off on Its Crap

What is Rhetoric?

Our FYC program writes and publishes their own textbook every year. This year, they asked me to write a short introduction addressing what rhetoric is and why one might study it. Here’s my answer (probably rife with errors, it could … Continue reading

Posted in aristotle, augustine, electracy, latour, plato, rhetoric, sophistry | Comments Off on What is Rhetoric?