Basic Knowledge
Burke is notable at supplying the reader with an abundance of information on psychological and sociological topics alike. The most useful of them in terms of philosophy of communication would be occupational psychosis, piety as a system builder, and the pathetic fallacy. Occupational psychosis is concerned with the lens a person perceives the world through; and the nature of that lens is determined by a person’s occupation or, more precisely, “ways of gaining sustenance” (Burke 56). Clearly, this is of major importance to rhetoric, as it is nearly impossible to communicate an idea effectively if unaware of the cultural context that it is going to be received in.
Piety is another major narrative that needs to be taken into account. It is known to be “a system builder”, and “a sense of what properly goes with what”, a system of associations that are deeply related to the occupational psychosis – which comprises a person’s worldview (Burke 102). The remaining notion, pathetic fallacy, is a person’s predisposition to project a reflection of his inner state to the exterior world, thus making the subjective seem objective. All three, are distinguished parts of what a worldview is comprised of – and since understanding the perception of target audience in a communicational process is essential to delivering an effective message, they are of major significance.
Metaphor and Argument
The center aim that Burke poses for the current work is evident. He attempts to show the globality of sociocultural phenomena that is “often considered in isolation” (Burke 336). Beyond showing the unity of a great variety of these factors, he also attempts to show that “Weltanschauung” or “orientation” is self-perpetrating, “creating the measures by which it shall be measured” (Burke 336). The dominant themes are numerous but the underlying mechanic is twofold – the integrity and self-perpetuating nature of cultural phenomenon and the individual tendencies. The topics presented all delve into much detail, and the author justifiably argues that they are not connected linearly, but form a kind of diagram.
However, his argument on the imperative usage of poetic metaphor in areas of life that are not generally considered to be of any artistic quality, is quite badly supported. He argues that, in essence, the poetic vocabulary fit for every area of life is particularly useful because it “evolved through the whole history of human thought” (Burke 339). The author seems to be ambitious in establishing this paradigm as the dominant one, dismissing the fact that it is simply yet another worldview. Although, this mode of perception – the poetic one – has the potential of cancelling out the destructive inclinations of modern society, if adopted, it is not enough of an argument to claim the title of a universally correct outlook.
Relevance
Practical knowledge finds a variety of manifestations from the theoretical frameworks described by Burke. They include implementing the knowledge from the concepts such as “occupational psychosis as trained incapacity”, which can serve especially well in marketing context (Burke 70). Both these concepts are ambivalent and deal with a person’s subjectivity of judgement, which can serve as a basis for a certain marketing strategy, especially targeted at a specific audience – since their perception can be learned through this concept.
In the classroom, ideas more directly concerned with communicational aspects are of greater importance. The idea of piety and the fact that it entails a characteristic system that each person builds with their unique associative array; this concept is essential for remembering in the study of rhetoric, as this piety affects the reception of information. Thus, a speaker must take it into account, in order to deliver the message well. Piety can be applied both in order to persuade the audience to take a particular stance and in order to understand the audience better. In speech, it manifests through a set of words that each person possesses; this way, the speaker can tell what person they are dealing with and convey a message in such a way that it would be relatable to the recipient.
Work Cited
Burke, Kenneth. Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose. New Republic Inc, 1935.