Dr. Hayner justly flogged my paper for Puritanism which I posted earlier: “A Review of Christopher Hill’s The Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution Revisited and Some Intellectual Consequences of the English Revolution.” However, she was also gracious enough to allow all three of us in the class to turn in revised essays for a better grade. My revision is posted below.

“A Review of Christopher Hill’s The Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution Revisited”

While I was working on a project today, I came across an interesting list of logical fallacies. The list is hosted by the Adam Smith Institute, a British free market think tank. The list is fairly comprehensive so there’s much that can be learned. But the articles are also quite funny (in a British sort of way), so they’re entertaining as well. Each article concludes with advice on how and when to use the fallacy for yourself.

I was very much excited to read the rhetorician Richard Weaver’s essay, “Language is Sermonic.” He is a Platonist, and so his rhetoric is informed by the ideas of hierarchy, values, and absolutes. He also happens to be a political conservative, but that seems to me to be inconsequential to the issue of his rhetoric. He argues that there is a hierarchy of arguments controlled by his metaphysics, that authority is a valid source for argumentation, that the rhetor is responsible to adapt absolutes to specifics, and that all language is an attempt to persuade others to one’s worldview.

Weaver did cause me concern last night because he ranks arguments from cause-and-effect rather low in his hierarchy. If arguments from cause-and-effect are nearly the least valid, then history serves little purpose. If history serves little purpose, than studying it is, though enjoyable, a big waste of time. I think however, that modifying his opinion about the argument from cause-and-effect slightly can harmonize the study of history and a rhetoric like his. I’ve attempted to argue for this modification in my latest précis for Ancient through Contemporary Rhetoric.

“A Modification to Weaver’s Views of Cause-and-Effect Arguments”

These are the courses that I intend to take next semester. On the one hand, it’s the fewest number of credits that I’ve ever taken. On the other hand, there’s a small little paper I have to write for one class, so it all balances out.

• Historical Research and Writing
• Westward Movement in America
• Philosophy of Education
• Hebrews in Greek
• Private Lessons in Rhetoric & Public Address
• Calculus I
• Christian Family Forum

If anyone would like to join me for any of these classes, feel free. If anyone would like to persuade me to take different classes, you have until registration on Monday.