Tuesday, November 27, 2007

common sense- thomas paine

a) a summary: Thomas Paine is discussing the pro's of society and the formation of soceity, and the con's of government. he is very pro-starting a society and keeping people united together for one cause, but believes that government ruling is evil. He goes on to describe a scenario where four or five men together can bild up a house, but one man alone can slave all day and accomplish nothing. People are naturally drawn together for want of safety but once people obtain safety, they no longer need governments.
paragraph one is making the statement that society = good and government = bad. introducing the idea that he prefers society over government. He says that other writers say that society and government are the same thing but they are very different in reality. Government is a necessary evil in his eyes because governmtn is there for bad side of our nature and society for the good side of it
paragraph two is about supporting his thesis made in teh first paragraph. government is there because our conscience isn't strong enough and we don't obey our conscious to the point of being just. governemtn is there for faults and lack of ability to listen to conscious. build government palace on lost innocence. badgeon ....metaphor to adam and eve having to ear clotes to us needing government.
paragraph three is an extended metaphor proiding an example to a claim before in the previous paragraph about the "design and end of government." people naturally try to connect with each other and they have lots of ideas of what they want it to look like, but one man can't do it on his own. They all have to work together. it's important for us to see that we need ea ch other and that we need each other because we can't do our own thing.

b) an analysis of the logical argument (fact, claim, warrant)
fact: To me it is unclear if he contains any facts in the piece since it is an incredibly opinionated point of view and discussion.
claim: he claims that people would be better off with no goverment and just society.
warran: he gives scenarios where people working together are more effective and beneficial than the instillment of a government.

c) rhetorical strategies: parallelism "happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices" demonstrate that there are two sides to one coin...yin/yang....
metaphor with palaces built on bowers of paradise.
logical arugment/ analogy." if the people are doing blank, then logically blank."

ARGUMENT BY ANALOGY*****
playing if-then / hypotherical

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