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Commonplaces and Ideologies

2 February 2017

Topics (topoi): a place to find arguments; procedure to find arguments using conjecture, degree, and
possibility. i.e., what exists, what is good, what is possible.
Conjecture (what exists) is sometimes (increasingly so today) disputed (read 92)
o Example: American carnage; America like a third world country; thousands of New
Jersey Muslims celebrated 9/11 attacks
Topics of degree and possibility even more dependent on ideology

Ideology: networks of interpretation (18); bodies of beliefs, doctrines, familiar ways of thinking that
are characteristic of a group or culture (96).

Can be economic, ethical, political, philosophical, or religious

Examples: conservatism vs liberalism, capitalism vs socialism, Christianity vs Judaism vs Islam,


feminism, environmentalism, populism (antagonism between people and elites, us vs them discourses),
nationalism, nativism.

Where do Ideologies come from?


Louis Althusser, Ideological State Apparatuses
Schools, churches, families, media, communities, life experience

Hegemonic ideologies: dominant ideologies, subscribed to by a large number of people


Minority ideology: subscribed to by small or marginalized groups

Commonplaces (Hawhee and Crowleys version of Aristotles special topics): statements/arguments that
regularly circulate within a community; seen as common sense; goes without saying.

Typically, short statements like slogans and bumper stickers

Statements that form bits and pieces of ideologies (108); they can contradict each other (individual
freedom and the need to protect the environment)

Commonplaces do not necessarily have to be true, but they must be believed by some community

Examples: Support our troops; love it leave it (America); we are the 99 percent; drill, baby, drill;
good planets are hard to find; pull yourself up by your own bootstraps; nothing in life is free; yes,
we can; make America great again; America first

Commonplaces are substitutes for actual arguments. Because they are seen as common sense in
particular communities, commonplaces are rarely articulated. Therefore, rhetors need to learn how to
unpack such commonplaces (read 101); see also page 109, Palins we cant afford any more change

See 102-108 for an in-depth analysis of conservative and liberal commonplaces on a number of issues

Articulation: to put in words or to connect nearby things or concepts (109)

Ideologic: reasoning in which commonplaces are yoked, strung, or chained into a line of argument
Maybe combined with conjectures, definition, testimony, or evidence, but the rhetorical force is carried
by the commonplaces. Such arguments are rarely fully articulated (109).

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