Ancient philosophers, contemporary linguists, and lettered scholars have proposed that the different languages of Earth are variations from a common source. The etymological evidence suggests that the ancient Sumerian tongue is the origin of both Semitic (Hebrew, Aramaic) and Indo-European (Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and English) languages. For example, the Latin scala is ‘ladder’; in Sanskrit skan is ‘going up’; in Sumerian zig an is “rise up’. (Allegro 4-5). In his classic study of orality and writing, Walter Ong asserts, “Every alphabet in the world—Hebrew, Ugaritic, Greek, Roman, Cyrillic, Arabic, Tamil, Malayalam, Korean—derives in one way or another from the original Semitic development, though, as in Ugaritic and Korean script, the physical design of the letters may not always be related to the Semitic design” (Ong 89). The English word wisdom is derived from the German word wit which has its origins in the Latin vid, the root of words like video ("I See"), and in turn, is traced back to the Sanskrit word veda, which means knowledge taught by beings other than men.
Logic
Jacques Lacan argues that the realm of the signified (the Real) is separated from the realm of the signifiers (the Imaginary and the Symbolic) by a stubborn, impenetrable gap. We can never be certain what a word means, though this need not prevent us from attempts at eloquence. The ambiguity of language is evident in the word "ball," which in the original Greek means "to throw" but in English becomes the thrown object itself, the noun rather than a verb. Applying this as a suffix, we can construct words like "symbol" ("to throw together") and diabolic ("to throw apart"). Michel Foucault proposes language orders the world to allow
for a relative degree of knowledge and perception of the world, despite the gap between language and the subjects and objects language attempts to describe.
Rhetoric
Gorgias compares rhetoric to witchcraft and suggests "the effect of speech upon the condition of the soul is comparable to the power of drugs over the nature of bodies." Socrates, in private talk with Phaedrus outside the city, is in agreement: "The method of the art of healing is much the same as that of rhetoric." Socrates makes gods of dialecticians and their power of discernment and synthesis; he admits rhetoric speaks to the soul, known only by holistic thinking, and hidden in a world of deceptive appearances. The unthinking crowd is won by surface and effects, and rhetoric functions where rigorous analysis is not possible.
Aristotle classifies rhetoric as a methodical art that is more persuasive than demonstrative, employing the science of logic and the ethics of politics partly in dialectic and partly in sophistical reasoning. Aristotle assumes all men possess common psychological attributes and a nature that exists beyond the conditioning of class and space-time. He also posits that many are ignorant of how far their self-interest extends, especially in the city, where the purpose is the good of the whole. In Aristotle's city, justice is not equal but in the right proportion; men should openly express their feelings and exhibit proper pride and proper indignation. Whereas intellectual virtue comes from teaching, Aristotle says moral virtue and character do not arise naturally but can be acquired by exercise and habit.
The Renaissance shifts from "mental interpretation" to "external realities"; John Locke searches for truth in the physical world, and he concludes that all we know is our ideas of sensations and only the relationship between those ideas. Knowledge builds on knowledge; complex ideas form from a network of simple ideas. The belles lettres of the Enlightenment produce rhetoric as narrative (poetry, literary criticism, fable, comedy, and history as a relation of facts). Giambattista Vico proposes the only purpose of art is to determine whether we have acted rightly or if we are engaged in vain exploits forbidden by nature. He proposes teaching science, arts and criticism to be effective in fantasy and in judgment. He believes the sage is focused always on eternal truth, whereas men are ruled by whim and chance, not forethought. He suggests incoherent confusion is corrected by integrated studies.
Gorgias compares rhetoric to witchcraft and suggests "the effect of speech upon the condition of the soul is comparable to the power of drugs over the nature of bodies." Socrates, in private talk with Phaedrus outside the city, is in agreement: "The method of the art of healing is much the same as that of rhetoric." Socrates makes gods of dialecticians and their power of discernment and synthesis; he admits rhetoric speaks to the soul, known only by holistic thinking, and hidden in a world of deceptive appearances. The unthinking crowd is won by surface and effects, and rhetoric functions where rigorous analysis is not possible.
Aristotle classifies rhetoric as a methodical art that is more persuasive than demonstrative, employing the science of logic and the ethics of politics partly in dialectic and partly in sophistical reasoning. Aristotle assumes all men possess common psychological attributes and a nature that exists beyond the conditioning of class and space-time. He also posits that many are ignorant of how far their self-interest extends, especially in the city, where the purpose is the good of the whole. In Aristotle's city, justice is not equal but in the right proportion; men should openly express their feelings and exhibit proper pride and proper indignation. Whereas intellectual virtue comes from teaching, Aristotle says moral virtue and character do not arise naturally but can be acquired by exercise and habit.
The Renaissance shifts from "mental interpretation" to "external realities"; John Locke searches for truth in the physical world, and he concludes that all we know is our ideas of sensations and only the relationship between those ideas. Knowledge builds on knowledge; complex ideas form from a network of simple ideas. The belles lettres of the Enlightenment produce rhetoric as narrative (poetry, literary criticism, fable, comedy, and history as a relation of facts). Giambattista Vico proposes the only purpose of art is to determine whether we have acted rightly or if we are engaged in vain exploits forbidden by nature. He proposes teaching science, arts and criticism to be effective in fantasy and in judgment. He believes the sage is focused always on eternal truth, whereas men are ruled by whim and chance, not forethought. He suggests incoherent confusion is corrected by integrated studies.