14 August

The word rhetoric has a pejorative meaning today, like persuasion is a sneaky thing. Better to just 'stick to the facts'. I think it's the key to reforming education. The ancient Greeks had it right in the middle of schooling, because for them all facts are shaped by values, and all values by facts, they didn't separate them. We do. So we educate people with (what we see as) valueless facts, and factless values. Pick any debated issue today and it's easy to spot the valueless facts ('just stick to the facts') and the factless values (right to life, ethics, moral principles).