Over 300 years BCE, Isocrates warned Athenians about the curse of empire in his oration "On the Peace." The central claim was that ruling over an empire was as devastating to the moral well-being of Athens and their potential subject states as tyranny is to a leader and his subjects. He draws a contrast between domination and leadership and points …

Perelman made a category of arguments that he termed to be "based on the structure of reality." Dr. Steven B. Katz joins us to discuss each of the arguments within this category, and how they rely on culturally accepted connections termed "liasons of succession" and "liasons of co-existence" in order to gain acceptance of other claims. Essentially,…

Isocrates believed most knowledge needed for practical judgement was contingent and more easily found by internal and external arguments. Plato believed all true knowledge can be derived from first principles. Both were right https://intelligenceofpersuasion.blogspot.com/2012/10/seeking-light-for-ourselves-in-darkness.html?m=1…

Dr. Ivana Stradner, who grew up in Serbia, discusses the rise of Serbian nationalism, Putin's strategy of increasing ethnic tensions in the region, and why we may be close to a new war in the Balkans.By David Erland Isaksen

Perelman made a category of arguments that he termed "quasi-logical." Quasi does not mean "fake" in this context, but just that they are similar to the arguments made in formal logic. Dr. Steven B. Katz joins us to discuss each of the arguments within this category, and how they rely on some of the most basic cognitive patterns that humans use to m…

In just a few years, India has been transformed from a vibrant liberal democracy to a majoritarian autocracy under Narendra Modi. Under his Hindu majority rule, Muslims and Christians are subjected to extrajudicial killings and mosques and churches are burnt to the ground. Dr. Ashok Swain, a Hindu and Professor of Peace and Conflict Research at Upp…

"A speech writer in Norway is supposed to be invisible." Kristine Dahl was working as a lawyer for the Norwegian government when she was asked to help write a speech for a government minister, and that's when she discovered a passion and talent for speech writing. Since then, she has written speeches for many ministers and business leaders, and she…

Cherise Bacalski, an appellate attorney who makes oral arguments at the Utah Supreme Court and Utah Court of Appeals, also took a master's degree with an emphasis in rhetoric. She shares how her education in rhetoric helped her to become a better advocate and the role of ethos and identification in legal argumentation.…

By David Erland Isaksen

When Dr. Azamat Junisbai grew up in Qazaqstan, he looked down on those who spoke Russian with an accent. Although he was an ethnic Qazaq born in Qazaqstan, he had absorbed the colonial mindset that Russian language and culture were superior to the Qazaq language and culture. With Russia's attack on Ukraine, many in Qazaqstan are coming to a reckoni…

Dr. Björn Olsen is a Professor of Infection Medicine at the Department of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University in Sweden. He was an active participant in the public policy debate where Sweden chose to disregard the advice and recommendations of the global scientific community and pursue a separate strategy that led to many unnecessary deaths. As a …

During the Second World War, Chaim Perelman, a leader in the Jewish Belgian Resistance was writing a philosophical treatise on justice. Frustrated, he discovered that his training in analytic philosophy renedered him unable to make any arguments about why his cause was more just than that of the Nazis, because he had been trained to disregard argum…

00:00 Defining demagoguery 04:00 Why Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt were not demagogues 10:30 Case Study: Earl Warren's demagogic argument about Japanese Internment 12:20 Threat perception and demagoguery/ "The Flight 93 Election" 14:40 Signs and evidence of threats 15:45 Demagoguery in the gay marriage debate 17:30 Demagoguery as "algae in a …

Dr. Patricia Roberts-Miller, author of "Demagoguery and Democracy," talks about how demagogues arise out of a demagogic culture, the forms of argument we can recognize as demagoguery, their appeal, and why a culture of demagoguery is corrosive to democratic deliberation.By David Erland Isaksen

Although from humble origins, Quintilian rose to prominence in Rome as a teacher of rhetoric and became the first imperial endowed chair in rhetoric in Rome. He was a skilled and compassionate educator who tried to help his students become the "vir bonus" or "good man speaking well." Towards the end of his life, he summarized his educational method…

Cicero gave his life defending the Roman republic from the emerging tyrants and saw rhetoric as tool to build, uphold, and defend a free and just society. In his writings on rhetoric and politics, he describes the virtues and skills needed by someone who would unite wisdom and eloquence to become the ideal orator. Dr. Enos joins us to discuss his l…

Aristotle wrote a work on rhetoric that would define a discipline. He rejected Plato's denunciation of rhetoric and showed why it is an art, a discipline, or a science and gathered the gems of all the manuals of rhetoric up to his day in a work that has endured for over 2000 years. Richard Enos and David Isaksen discuss some of its main contributio…

UK award-winning public speaker, Simon Day, shares his journey from being terrified of public speaking to mastering the art, as well as some of the secrets to his success including adopting and adapting the rhetorical style of Barack Obama, learning the Memory Palace technique, storytelling, and perfecting his delivery with lessons from music. Find…

Cicero called Isocrates "the father of eloquence" and said that from his school proceeded giants who had an enormous influence on Athenian society and Greek culture, but he is often overlooked in histories of rhetoric and philosophy. In this episode, Richard Enos and David Isaksen discuss his contributions to the philosophy and teaching of rhetoric…

Dr. Tomas Jose Barrientos Quezada, Dean of the Department of Archeology at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, joins us to discuss the "Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings," including the evolutionary creation of humans, the hero twins who became Venus and the Sun, the dawn over all people, the god who pr…

Dr. Richard L. Enos, expert on classical rhetoric, shares some of his insights on the historical moment in antiquity where rhetoric was conceived as a discipline. The innovation of the alphabet gave a larger portion of society easy access to tools for abstract thought, leading to fundamental changes in society. Dr. Enos traces how the ancient tradi…

Archeologist Christina Leverkus from Midgard Viking Centre joins us for a discussion about buried treasures mentioned in ancient texts and archeological discoveries at Borre, which has the largest gathering of monumental mounds in Northern Europe. What do these burial mounds tell us about the people who made them and their societies? Learn more abo…

Dr. Brian Swain, Assistant Professor of History, joins Dr. Isaksen to discuss Jordanes' "Getica: Origin and Deeds of the Goths" and how it might have been written as a rhetorical intervention to reconcile the Romans and the Goths and end the war that had been going on for 17 years.By David Erland Isaksen

Author and master trainer Vidar Top and Dr. Isaksen discuss how you can create a powerful connection with individuals and audiences so they can change for the better. (more from Vidar Top at www.linkedin.com/in/evtop and http://vidartop.com).By David Erland Isaksen

The topos of the tyrant was a rhetorical weapon to defend democracy. The current "authoritarian moment" calls for a renaissance of this rhetorical exercise. A speaker can use "the topos of a tyrant" by recounting and elaborating on "the six vices of a tyrant": suspicion, cruelty, savagery, arrogance, immorality, and avarice. As Cicero stated, "when…

Natia Kvachakidze, Associate Professor of Literature at Akaki Tsereteli State University, joins Dr. Isaksen to discuss The Georgian Chronicles and it's twin themes of the quest for national and religious identity and independence from the tower of Babel to the death of King David the Builder.By David Erland Isaksen

Debate champion and communication consultant Daniël Schut joins Dr. Isaksen to discuss how he coaches his clients for debates and speeches, the ethical issues in communication consulting, how some scientific research and theories on persuasion may be destroying the basis for democracy, and how that can be countered. (more from Schut at https://adre…

David Isaksen and Jens Johan Hyvik, who have doctorates in rhetoric and history, discuss Snorre Sturlason's Heimskringla and the argument Snorre may have been making to his contemporary audience about the power of kings, the role of violence, and the victory of Christianity over the Norse Gods.By David Erland Isaksen

Dr. Isaksen explains how to anticipate counterarguments in your speeches, using Barack Obama's "We the people" speech as an example of what to do, and Brutus' speech in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" as an example of what not to do.By David Erland Isaksen

Dr. Isaksen uses examples from Martin Luther King, Steve Jobs, and Christopher Titus to explain the high, medium, and low rhetorical styles, and how and when these are best used."By David Erland Isaksen