We can strengthen our writing--or, allow our writing to be transformed--by focusing on and working with the interference patterns that emerge when point meets counterpoint. Learning how to recognize and consider counterpoints, and how to time and situate the counterpoints we offer, have always been fundamental to the construction of shared rhetorical dwellings. Classical rhetors named this art of anticipation prolepsis, and we will continue to experiment with the various ways proleptic attention can sharpen reading skills, help us find audience for our projects, and shape our writing in ways that help us inform, educate, and make a difference.
figures of anticipation and refutation
add links to examples here:
Enthy wha?
Enthymemes are measuring devices for testing a working argument's suitability and direction because they help us reflect on our premises, find shared resonances, and, most importantly, learn how to work with interference patterns in communicative processes. When you program a computer, you tell it what to do: a computer will accept the logic of the syllogism "sight unseen." Circuit closed. Enthymemes, on the other hand, are open to question, completed by the unspoken ( and often unknown) assumptions of any particular audience. When we write and then pause to carefully consider and tinker with the major premise of our enthymemic proof in-process, we can find patterns of resonance - places where the audience and an argument are "on the same page." We're also sure to find interference patterns when readers/listeners/users bring different assumptions than we expect, and get noisy about some the assumptions built into our premises.
edit pass exercise: "distinguishing premises from conclusions."
C.S. Peirce's logical types - from induction to abduction...."take me to your leading principle"
browse further: yet another version of Aristotle's Rhetoric
an interdisciplinary bibliography on the enthymeme
counterargument is awesome
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