Kenneth Burke
Kenneth Burke
Kenneth Duva Burkewas an American literary theorist who had a powerful impact on 20th-century philosophy, aesthetics, criticism, and rhetorical theory. As a literary theorist, Burke was best known for his analyses based on the nature of knowledge. Furthermore, he was one of the first individuals to stray away from more traditional rhetoric and view literature as "symbolic action."...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth5 May 1897
CountryUnited States of America
men perfection rotten
Man is rotten with perfection.
animal men order
Man is/the symbol-using (symbol making, symbol-misusing) animal/inventor of the negative (or moralized by the negative)/separated from his natural condition by instruments of his own making/goaded by the spirit of hierarchy (or moved by the sense of order)/and rotten with perfection.
attitude men political
The most characteristic concern of rhetoric [is] the manipulation of men's beliefs for political ends....the basic function of rhetoric [is] the use of words by human agents to form attitudes or to induce actions in other human agents.
fall cutting men
The universe would appear to be something like a piece of cheese; it can be sliced in an infinite number of ways- and when one has chosen his own pattern of slicing, he finds that other men's cuts fall at the wrong places.
attitude men ideas
You persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his language by speech, gesture, tonality, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your ways with his
reflection reality men
Men seek for vocabularies that are reflections of reality. To this end, they must develop vocabularies that are selections of reality. And any selection of reality must, in certain circumstances, function as a deflection of reality.
arbitrary assertion naturally seem sheer simply victim vision
It is deplorable, but not tragic, simply to be a victim of circumstance. Sheer victimization is not an assertion - and it naturally makes not for vision but for frustration. The victimizing circumstances, or accidents, seem arbitrary and exorbitant, even silly.
clear empirical figure hope interpret issues motivation solved subject terms ultimately ways
We hope to make clear the ways in which dialectical and metaphysical issues necessarily figure in the subject of motivation. Our speculations, as we interpret them, should show that the subject of motivation is a philosophic one, not ultimately to be solved in terms of empirical science.
conversation drama history point
Where does the drama get its materials? From the "unending conversation" that is going on at the point in history when we are born.
creation authority
Creation implies authority in the sense of originator.
light purpose principles
Our purpose is simply to ask how theological principles can be shown to have usable secular analogues that throw light upon the nature of language.
fall ideas covenant
Creation implies authority in the sense of originator. The possibility of a 'Fall' is implied in a Covenant insofar as the idea of a Covenant implies the possibility of its being violated.
different degrees kind
For no continuity of social act is possible without a corresponding social status and the many different kinds of act required in an industrial state, with its high degree of specialization, make for corresponding classification of status.
thinking doe language
Language does our thinking for us.