What part of Charton Heston's speech to Harvard Law School students in 1999 would be considered an enthymeme? I am thinking it is somewhere in the beginning of the speech.
Exactly which part, do you think?
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/charltonhestonculturalwar.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enthymeme
http://grammar.about.com/od/e/g/enthymemeterm.htm
I was going to say after he quotes Abraham Lincoln, those words are represented by the enthymeme. Am I close to being correct? Thanks!
"Those words are true again. I believe that we are again engaged in a great civil war, a cultural war that's about to hijack your birthright to think and say what lives in your heart. I'm sure you no longer trust the pulsing lifeblood of liberty inside you, the stuff that made this country rise from wilderness into the miracle that it is."
I think you're right. What reasons will you give to prove you're right?
I think Heston here is trying to give the audience a chance to think about how they feel about his feelings towards not being able to say what they feel in their hearts because he feels this way. Does this make sense to use as the proof? Thanks!
If this is the basic definition of an enthymeme -- "an informally stated syllogism (a three-part deductive argument) with an unstated assumption that must be true for the premises to lead to the conclusion" (Wikipedia) -- what do you think is the "unstated assumption"?
PS -- Feelings have nothing to do with this -- beliefs do.
I would say the unstated assumption is "Those words are true again". Is this correct? I would also say I think Heston here is trying to give the audience a chance to think about what they believe is true about what he is saying. Am I correct? Thanks!
I think you're getting there. That sentence cannot be the "unstated assumption," though -- it's stated! The thing about enthymemes is that there's an UNSTATED assumption behind all the following statements. Re-read those two definition links I gave you above.
Is this the unstated assumption? Heston assumes that the audience will fill in the blanks and partake in the construction of his argument.
I believe that we are again engaged in a great civil war, a cultural war that's about to hijack your birthright to think and say what lives in your heart.