How Rhetoric Shapes Your Opinions

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Dialogue, Science, Reason, Michaelshermer, Natural Sciences, Skeptic

4.4 • 921 Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2024

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Robin Reames breaks down the major techniques of rhetoric, pulling back the curtain on how politicians, journalists, and “journalists” convince us to believe what we believe—and to talk, vote, and act accordingly.

Understanding these techniques helps us avoid being manipulated by authority figures who don’t have our best interests at heart. It also grants us rare insight into the values that shape our own beliefs.

Reames and Shermer discuss: rhetoric vs. facts (rhetorical truths vs. empirical truths) • the point of reason (to understand reality or to persuade?) • Canons of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, style, memory, delivery • bullshitters vs. liars • induction and deduction • rhetorical, ideological, and metaphorical thinking • how to debate contentious issues

Robin Reames is associate professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, specializing in rhetorical theory and the history of ideas. Her new book is The Ancient Art of Thinking for Yourself: The Power of Rhetoric in Polarized Times.

SPONSOR: everything-everywhere.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Michael Sherman Show. The Michael Scherber Show This episode of the show is brought to you by one of my favorite podcasts.
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0:31.0	It is one of the most popular podcasts in the world, garnering over a
0:35.1	million hits a month and its host is Gary aren't one of the most interesting people
0:40.9	you'll ever meet. Remember that TV guy, the most interesting man in the world?
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0:57.8	He's visited all seven continents, over 200 countries and territories, all 50 U.S. states, and over 220 U.S. National Park Service sites, and over 400 UNESCO World Heritage sites.
1:05.0	He owns one of the largest collections of National Geographic magazines
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1:20.7	in New Zealand, floated in the Dead Sea,
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	...

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