Alden is David's sister; All David's sisters have red hair; so Alden has red hair.

The comparison between rhetoric and poetics is an interesting topic brought up by Leff in his essay, especially when directed towards the recent inaugural speech by our President. Leff discusses the difference between persuasion and argument and persuasion and aesthetics. The only difference between these two ideas is in the determination of the speech’s purpose. George W. Bush’s inaugural speech would be expected to have a little more of a persuasive feel to it as he only won by a small margin in the recent election. Whether he accomplished this goal is debatable. On the other hand, a speech such as Jon Stewart’s graduation speech would be geared more towards aesthetics and entertainment. Leff feels that it is important for a successful speech to have a full understanding of the ontology of any speech, executing it carefully. I would argue that a good speech should have a balance of persuasion and aesthetics since it is very hard to persuade someone if they do not want to listen. A successful speech brings the audience in as soon as possible before attempting to persuade. The author must have in-depth knowledge of his topic before he can effectively persuade “as part of an adaptive mechanism vital to any reasonable understanding of public events themselves” (Leff, 61). This goes along with the Scott essay when he says that the individual “must know the truth and that persuasion at its best is simply making the truth effective” (Scott 137). This also assumes that the speakers understanding of “truth” correlates to his genuine understanding of ethical behavior. This idea of ethical truth encompasses “toleration, will and responsibility” which is alarmingly up to the discretion of the speaker. After reading Bush’s speech, this idea was brought into perspective and left some room for interpretation. If Bush actually thinks that everything he has done is right and good and that we much still keep going along the same path then he is speaking as ethically as he can. If his ideas are not right, it is left to the audience to decide how to take him. He illustrates Scott’s idea that “Man must consider truth not as something fixed and final but as something to be created moment by moment in the circumstances in which he finds himself and with which he must cope” (Scott 138). Apparently the rest of us must cope with this as well.