Dalton Schroepfer 10/13/16

Today in class we started off by talking about the rhetorical summative we will be taking next Tuesday. Then, we went over historical lens, which is basically looking into the time period a text was written to fully understand the thoughts and feelings of the author writing it. Next, we went into our groups and talked about "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine and "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards. We talked about the differences the authors use to accomplish a similar task, which is to be persuasive. Then, as a class we compared the two and talked about the differences. These are the differences we came up with:
           "Sinners" :
-uses pathos
-uses an angry, harsh tone
-written in second person- addressing YOU
-repeats old ideas
-OWNS the ethos (implied power)
-performed as a speech - emphasis for pathos and emotion could be seen

"Common Sense"
-uses logos - kingship is arbitrary
-plain arguments - counterclaims, questioning the status quo
- ethos = community/patriotism
-uses first person - shows more unity
-was a pamphlet - it was read instead of seen with emotions as "sinners" was
    After we were done comparing the two, we went over rationalism, and the advantages of rationalism, some of which are that it uses objective and scientific views of the universe
    After discussing the advantages of rationalism, Mr Rivers asked the question: "Are there any dangers of rationalism?" The answer to this question was that yes, because we lose humanity with rationalism.