University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor OSSA Conference Archive OSSA 4 May 17th, 9:00 AM - May 19th, 5:00 PM Culturally Inherited Cognitive Activity: Implications for the Rhetoric of Science Joseph Little Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/ossaarchive Part of the Philosophy Commons Little, Joseph, "Culturally Inherited Cognitive Activity: Implications for the Rhetoric of Science" (2001). OSSA Conference Archive. 75. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/ossaarchive/OSSA4/papersandcommentaries/75 This Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences and Conference Proceedings at Scholarship at UWindsor. It has been accepted for inclusion in OSSA Conference Archive by an authorized conference organizer of Scholarship at UWindsor. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Title: Culturally Inherited Cognitive Activity: Implications for the Rhetoric of Science1 Author: Joseph Little Response to this paper by: Mark Weinstein © 2001 Joseph Little Introduction Few constructs rest more securely upon the foundation of rhetorical theory than the syllogism. Introduced by Aristotle in the fourth century BC, the syllogism provided Athenian orators with structural guidance for constructing valid, deductive arguments in the polis (Aristotle, 1991, 40; Aristotle, 1984a; Aristotle, 1984b). Yet this guidance is not without qualification: Often neglected in modern times is the fact that valid conclusions, for Aristotle, were only expected to follow necessarily from the premises when the audience was comprised of men acting in accordance with orthos logos, or "right reason" (1984c, 1935-36; 1984d, 1766, 1797, 1798, 1808, 1812, 1819). Also neglected in modern times is the fact that Aristotle thought of "right reason" as a developed ability that "comes to us if growth is allowed to proceed regularly" rather than as an innate aspect of human cognition (1984c, 1939-40).