2014年11月18日星期二

Blog Post 16: RT, Modern and Post-Modern Rhetoric, Intro, PP. 1181-1205; Michael Bakhtin, Marxism and Language, pp. 1206-1226


After reading the introduction, I feel like even though rhetoric is no longer popular, it exists in every aspect of English. It is used in psychology, communication, philosophy, and literacy studies. Rhetoric can also be used in politics, media, and other non-academic fields. I think the idea of Charles Sanders Pierce (the American philosopher) is interesting. He gives new definition to grammar, logic, and rhetoric. He said grammar is the study of meaning; logic is the study of truth; and rhetoric is the study of the connections between signs.
I think it’s interesting that Mikhail Bakhtin cannot find a publisher of Marxism, Freud, and literacy Formalism in the beginning. I think it’s interesting that Saussure said signs are psychological in nature (p. 1208). Bakhtin said our minds can form signs during social interactions. In another words, while we are talking to each other, we are constructing symbols in our thoughts. I think it’s very hard to explain how we construct meanings in our mind, because that process is spontaneous and it is by neuron stimulation. But it is evidence that we are able to talk and express meanings by oral communication.

I think a big difference between ancient rhetoric and Marxism is that Marxism analyzes the origin of our communication, which is a psychological process. None of the ancient rhetors are able to explain our language from a psychological perspective, because by that time such science hasn’t been invented. Socrates, one of the ancient rhetor, is the only one who is aware that he has a soul, a conscious world. 
As a Chinese girl. I'm going to talk about the history of Chinese communism. Chinese communist actually make great use of Marxism. They used it to expand capitalism and improved industrial development. Marxism is the theory that enables Chinese people to build a communist society, where all people are equal.And the spreading of communism eventually leads to the so called Cold War, which is an attempt by America to suppress the growing communism. 
Marxism is really a great ideology that leads societies grows and development.

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