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Photograph taken by fellow University of Waterloo student, Youn Hwan Kim at Ripley’s Aquarium, Toronto, Ontario. Used with permission.

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Educational Writing: A Brief History of Aristotle’s Impact on Rhetoric

Target Audience: first year college students

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In Chronologia Vitae Aristotelis, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a Greek historian and rhetorician, documented the otherwise illusive life of Aristotle, one of the most influential scholars of Western philosophy. According to Dionysius, Aristotle was born during the 99th Olympiad, held in 384 BCE (Chroust 16). At eighteen years of age, Aristotle moved to Athens, where spent twenty years at Plato’s academy, studying a plethora of subjects such as mathematics and philosophy (Chroust 16). In 348 BCE, the year Plato died, Aristotle left the academy and went on to become a tutor for Alexander the the Great from 343 to 336 BCE (Chroust 16), then returned to Athens in 336 BCE to teach at the ancient Greek equivalent of secondary school (Chroust 16). After twelve years of teaching, Aristotle became ill and died in 323 BCE when he was sixty three (Chroust 16). 

Aristotle’s ideas regarding rhetoric and composition have evolved considerably during his lifetime. In Grullos, one of his earliest dialogues on rhetoric, Aristotle claimed that rhetoric was not an art, mirroring Plato’s argument in his Socratic dialogue Gorgias (Rapp, par. 1). However, later in his life, Aristotle became one of the first theorists to propose a formal definition of rhetoric. In chapter 2 of his first book of Rhetoric, he defined rhetoric as “the ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion” (Borchers & Hundly 5), which remains relevant as many theorists maintain the association of rhetoric and persuasion. He went on to outline the three modes of persuasion--logos, ethos, and pathos (Freese xxi). In the first book of Rhetoric, Aristotle describes the persuasive potential of logic, or logos (Freese xxi). In the second book Aristotle discusses ethos, strengthening an argument through ethical authoritativeness (Freese xxi), and pathos, harnessing an audience's emotions (Freese xxi).

After Aristotle’s death, his ideas about rhetoric have been expanded beyond the scope of speeches and into the realm of visual rhetoric by many theorists. In first century BCE, Cicero developed the five classical canons (invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery), based on Aristotle’s three modes of persuasion (Sellnow 32), in notable works such as De Inventione. In the Middle Ages, in his treatise De doctrina christiana, Saint Augustine amended the canons to account for the visual rhetoric of religious iconography (Sellnow 32). In 1925, Herbert Wichelns used the five classical canons to create the first formalized rhetorical criticism approach, the neo-Aristotelian approach, for analysing speeches. In the 1960s, theorists began creating more contemporary rhetorical approaches to analyze non-traditional texts like signs, music, and visual art (Sellnow 39), such as Ernest Bormann’s symbolic convergence theory developed in 1972 (Sellnow 97). This progression of rhetorical criticism throughout the 20th century made way for the postmodern Marxist rhetorical approaches commonly utilized today, optimized for analysis of advertisements and other capitalistic forms of visual rhetoric, developed by scholars such as Louis Althusser and Michel Foucault (Sellnow 115).

Ultimately, Aristotle has had a profound influence on the field of rhetoric and composition. His ideas have been continually reimagined by scholars to accommodate newer forms of rhetoric, including visual rhetoric.

Works Cited

Borchers, Timothy, & Hundley, Heather. Rhetorical Theory: An Introduction. Waveland Press, Inc., 2018

Chroust, Anton-Hermann. Aristotle: New light on his life and on some of his lost works,Volume 1: Some novel interpretations of the man and his life. Routledge, 2016

Freese, John Henry. Aristotle: The “Art” of Rhetoric. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1926

Rapp, Christof. "Aristotle's Rhetoric." The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Spring 2010, plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2010/entries/aristotle-rhetoric

Sellnow, Deanna. The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture: Considering Mediated Texts. Sage, 2014

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Social Commentary/Critical Analysis:  Sephora’s Mythic Oriental Woman

Target Audience: Rhetoric professor

Note: Written in style of Roland Barthes’ “Mythologies” Essays

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Within malls across the world, Sephora is the premiere purveyor of luxury cosmetics. It serves as a mecca for those in the business of self-transformation, and subsequently, it acts as a  liminal space in which one is confronted with a definitively curated hegemonic amalgamation of the world’s most objectively beautiful faces. Amidst the myriad of sun-kissed all-American goddesses who dominate the advertising campaigns that adorn the walls and shelves of Sephora, there exists the other women.

She is Sephora’s answer to the consumer’s plea for diversity. An exclusive form of inclusivity, she appears amongst many backdrops but always bears the same markedly translucent skin, it’s brightness obfuscating the colourist ideology from which her allure originates. She wears a characteristically demure smile, and dons glossy jet-black hair, excluding a refined aura of femininity that stands in stark contrast, both literally and figuratively, to the bombastically blonde and bronzed beauty standards of the West. She is the mythic oriental women, bringing the beauty standards of the East to the West, and promising glass-like skin with her ten-step nightly skin care regime.

Her advertising campaigns are riddled with denoting motifs of orientalism and fetishization, shrouded by a veil of exoticism. They oftentimes feature compelling high-modality adjectives like ethereal, sublime, and opulent, that are spun into the hypotactic descriptions and lofty claims printed onto the labels of a seemingly endless array of products. Her campaign’s illusory relation to reality functions within a fantasy referential dimension, as it denotes ideals for one’s complexion that are virtually unattainable. However, this fantasy is the mythic oriental women’s appeal, as within the social dimension, she is retweeted and shared with the caption “#goals”, and is currently experiencing an all time high in social media popularity and cultural relevance due to the prolific rise of South Korean pop music, more commonly referred to as kpop (pronounced kay-pop), in the West. The recent success of South Korean pop idol groups, such as the Grammy-nominated boyband BTS, beyond Asia has increased the demand for Asian beauty products across the world. Thanks to the influence of kpop, Asian and Asian-inspired beauty products have become a whole new genre of cosmetics that are referred to by the umbrella term k-beauty, regardless if the products are from South Korea or a different part of Asia.    

The introduction of the mythic oriental women into the narrative of the Western beauty industry successfully popularized the multi-step skincare regime (a daily skincare regime in which multiple products are used in tandem), made apparent by the substantially expanded skincare section in many Sephora locations. In doing so, it opened up a new profit avenue for the previously make-up orientated North American and European cosmetic consumer market, who had historically preferred to conceal their blemishes and imperfections rather than investing in skincare products.   

When confronted by the mythic oriental women, one is struck by what sets her apart. She is intentionally constructed in such a way that emphasize her marked features, which aesthetically correlate with the products she is intended to promote. Products often feature “exotic” ingredients such as matcha (finely milled green tea leaves), rice bran, and algae, constructing a notion that these products are somehow authentic to the regions in Asia that they are being tied to. She appears unique whilst simultaneously adhering to globally hegemonic notions of beauty, such as having blemish-free skin and shiny hair, and serves a vehicle for Asian beauty standards (namely pale, glass-like skin) to be introduced to the West.

Globalization has contributed to the vast appeal of the mythic oriental women, and her advertising campaigns have no signs of ceasing to assert her as the global skincare authority. Her successful commodification proves that her message ideologically coincides with the desires of consumers, revealing that her skin care regimes are encoding and decoding regimes in disguise. Within the logonomic system that is Sephora and their network of clients, the orientalist myth behind the mythic oriental women is what ensures she reigns supreme within the skin care aisle.

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Technical Writing/Software Documentation: Adobe Connect Guide for University of Waterloo Students in Online Courses

Complete Document (Google Doc)

Target Audience: University students enrolled in first year online course

Preview: 

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Research Essay/Investigative Report: McLuhan’s Prophetic Prediction of the Insidious Nature of Memes

Target Audience: Rhetoric professor

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Introduction

In this essay, governed by the theories outlined in The Medium is the Message and Media Hot and Cold by Marshall McLuhan, I will be examining the how the current day iteration of the internet, as a medium, has the potential to facilitate ideological radicalization through memes and algorithmically curated content. I will outline the lifecycle of a meme, from its inception in the fringe outskirts of the online sphere on image sharing forums such as 4chan, and delineate how makes its way into the content of mainstream creators, specifically on YouTube. Using the recent Christchurch massacre as a case study, I will be examining the insidious nature of the memes featured in the shooter’s manifesto and the livestream of the massacre, their function as political dog-whistles and how, through algorithm generated recommendations, they function to passively indoctrinate individuals into self-identifying with extremist ideology.

Through McLuhan’s notions of “hot” and “cold” media, I will argue that the internet, as a medium, facilitates the rapid heat transfer of ideology--that is, that it allows otherwise “cool” media from online niches to heat up and permeate into the mainstream spheres of the World Wide Web and be passively consumed by unsuspecting audiences. Through consistent passive consumption, the Overton window of online discourse is shifted within the algorithmically mediated reality that is one’s online activities, potentially indoctrinating users into actively seeking out and participating in the “cool” spheres from which their initially “hot” curated media originated from.

Specifically, I will be examining how the political far-right utilize internet memes as white-supremacist dog-whistles, and how the algorithms that mediate website content based on a user’s past actions essentially curate an ideological echo-chamber, ultimately creating a secondary reality in which a users are consistently pipelined into extremist media territory that can have tragic real-life consequences, such as the Christchurch shooting.

Delineating Online Spheres According to McLuhan’s Notions of “Hot” and “Cold” Media

In his essays, The Medium is the Message and Media Hot and Cold, Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan outlined how the nature of the medium reveals more about its message than the content of the message itself, and that the ways in which people interact with a medium can be either “hot” or “cold”. The aforementioned theories, despite significantly predating the inception of the Internet, are reflected and substantiated through the ways in which online discourse and rhetoric are constructed.

In Media Hot and Cold, Marshall McLuhan categorizes media into two distinct groups under the umbrella terms “hot” and “cold” to denote the amount of participation needed to consume them. To McLuhan, “hot” media is already saturated with data, thus offering limited opportunities for audience participation, while “cold” media is relatively more barren in terms of its content, allowing for active interpretation and participation (McLuhan 39). In other words, cold media offers less information, requiring the audience to contemplate the content and fill the voids in meaning with personal interpretations, while hot media is intended for a more passive manner of consumption.

Although Marshall McLuhan passed away prior to the advent of the internet, McLuhan’s notions of hot and cold media, and the analogies with which he illustrates how they function, maintain their relevance when applied to online media. For instance, McLuhan describes towns as “cool or casually structured” and cities as “hot and intensely filled in” (McLuhan 46), which are sentiments that similarly describe the gathering places of the World Wide Web. Mainstream websites, such as YouTube and Facebook, match McLuhan’s “hot and intensely filled in” description of a city--by algorithmically curating (i.e. “intensely filling in”) viewable content based on a user’s past activity, an endless newsfeed that can be passively scrolled through emerges, requiring little participation on behalf of the user. Meanwhile, niche image sharing forums like 4chan or 8chan that predate Facebook and Youtube, “still foster anonymous communication, [hence] their popularity pales in comparison with [more modern] sites like Facebook that foreground identifying characteristics” (Mitchell iii). In comparison to Facebook and YouTube, the relatively archaic user interfaces of image sharing forums require active participation and a niche set of knowledge to maneuver, akin to McLuhan’s notion of a “cold” medium due to the lack of modern features such as discernable user profiles and algorithmically curated content. Through the juxtaposition of modern social media websites, such as Facebook or YouTube, with the comparably archaic 4chan and 8chan, McLuhan’s notion of the “disruptive impact of a hot technology succeeding a cool one” can be examined (McLuhan 41).

McLuhan claims that a “hot” media “will serve to fragment the tribal structure” established by a “cold” media (McLuhan 41). As it pertains to the internet, the “hot” media spheres of Facebook and Youtube, due to their accessibility, are frequented by a wide range of users that contribute to the information saturation that defines it’s “hotness”. Thus, archaic sites such as 4chan and 8chan are pushed into the fringe spheres of the internet, and subsequently “marks its user as radically different from the mainstream” (Mitchell 111), creating the ideal breeding ground for extremist ideology.

How Online “Cold” Media Utilizes “Hot” Media to Spread Extremist Ideology   

Interestingly, McLuhan predicts the insidious consequences that emerge from the “hot” media format of mainstream websites. He claims that, “the content of any medium blinds us to the character of the medium” (McLuhan 20), hence “any medium has the power of imposing its own assumption on the unwary” (McLuhan 28). He argues that this passive approach to processing the oversaturation of information characteristically presented by “hot” media is the fulfilment of an evolutionary function, as “were we to accept fully and directly every shock to our various structures of awareness, we would soon be nervous wrecks”, prophetically describing the average internet browser’s passivity as a state of somnambulism (McLuhan 40).

In his essay titled The Hyperreality of the Alt Right: How Meme Magic Works to Create a Space for Far Right Politics, Dan Prisk describes how an individual fell down the YouTube rabbit-hole of the Alt Right, a recent political movement described as “catchall for an Internet focused white nationalism” (Heikkila par. 4). Initially, the individual in question, who self-identified as a “lifelong liberal” (Prisk 7), was recommended YouTube videos by the website’s algorithm that they described as containing “modes of talking that are presented as innocuous criticism from people claiming to be liberals themselves” (Prisk 7). He likens the passive absorption of ideology through the YouTube algorithm curated consumption of videos to osmosis, claiming that “by spending so much time, even passively, living among the ideas that form the basis of these videos, the [individual in question] comes to pick up a predisposition, tendency, propensity, or inclination towards the mental frameworks that underlie them”, adding “in other words, the [individual in question] developed a habitus from the field of the Alt Right, that came to be applied in their life outside that” (Prisk 7).

Thus, through algorithmically generated content, YouTube has facilitated the indoctrination of extremist ideology, allowing political extremists to take advantage of the “hot” nature of the media and the subsequent somnambulism of the audience. Once a user has been indoctrinated through the “hot” channel of a curated media, such as YouTube’s recommended videos and autoplay feature (which automatically creates a video queue depending on the content of previously watched videos, eliminating the need for active browsing) algorithms also function on a “cool” channel to “deliver search results for those who seek confirmation for racist notions” and, in the case of the aforementioned individual, “connect newcomers to like-minded racists” (Daniels 62).

This begs the question, how can such problematic media be proliferated on mainstream websites? My hypothesis, on which I base my argument, is that users of “cold” media are well aware of the insidious potential of “hot” media as outlined in the previous paragraphs, and utilize the inconspicuous medium of the meme to propagate extremist ideology through mainstream channels of online social media. The recent Christchurch massacre, in a tragic way, exemplifies my aforementioned hypothesis, as the shooter was clearly aware of the YouTube algorithm’s penchant for constructing ideological echo-chambers--hence why, during the livestream of his mass murder, he directed the audience to subscribe to Pewdiepie (Romano par. 4).

A Vox News article describes Pewdiepie, the most subscribed to YouTuber of all time, as someone who “has [had] a history of amplifying white nationalist rhetoric that is both serious and violent” through his online show, aptly titled “Meme Review”, during which he reviews popular online memes to his millions of views on a nearly daily basis (Romano par. 39). However, Vox News’ criticism of Pewdiepie’s perceived influence on the Christchurch shooter’s ideology is misdirected. McLuhan outlines a similar scenario in which he criticized an individual who claimed that “we are too prone to make technological instruments the scapegoats for the sins of those who wield them… the products of modern science are not in themselves good or bad; it is the way they are used that determines their value” (McLuhan 23). McLuhan states that the aforementioned quote fails to bear scrutiny, as it “ignores the nature of the medium, of any and all media, in the true Narcissus style of one hypnotized by the amputation of extension of his own being in a new technical form” (McLuhan 23). Vox News fails to understand the insidious nature of memes, as a medium, and how the “hot” nature of YouTube in tandem with the “cold” origins of memes serve to push the Overton window of acceptable online discourse.          

How Memes Facilitate the Online Spread of Extremist Ideology

Richard Dawkins was the first to describe the modern notion of a meme in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene; he referred to memes as “seemingly insignificant cultural units of transmission that spread from person to person by imitation” (Riemensperger 3). In the online sphere, memes function in a similar manner to Dawkins’ initial definition, but have evolved from being “insignificant cultural units of transmission” into a potentially insidious medium for the proliferation of extremist ideology.  

McLuhan was able to predict the conclusion that many modern rhetorical scholars have come to in regards to the persuasive power of the modern notion of the internet meme, namely “how Internet memes, a unique medium that has the capability to easily and seamlessly transfer ideologies between groups… enable subcultures to challenge, and possibly overthrow, hegemonic power structures that maintain the dominance of a mainstream culture” (Pettis ii).

Prisk describes the insidious nature of the modern internet meme, specifically the memes that originated from the deeper, “cold” recesses of the internet, such as 4chan and 8chan, in which far-right ideology pervades, claiming that “all this stuff [memes] is so steeped in irony, this kind of really detached ironic tone, it’s very hard to know what anyone actually means” (Prisk 6). He goes on to describe the ironic nature of inflammatory memes as “a kind of defense mechanism… a way to hide behind multiple layers of irony and make oneself hard to interpret” (Prisk 6). Prisk is essentially outlining how the memes can act as a political dog-whistle to insidiously spread white supremacist ideology--the very same seemingly inconspicuous memes that Pewdiepie may naively present to his audience of millions during one of his Meme Reviews.   

McLuhan reflects Prisk’s impression of far-right memes, as he states that “we are no more prepared to encounter radio and TV in our literate milieu than the native of Ghana is able to cope with the literacy that takes him out of his collective tribal world and beaches him in individual isolation”, adding that “accelerated media change as a kind of massacre of the innocents” (McLuhan 29). For those uninitiated with the rhetoric of the far-right, the memes that originated from such online communities may just appear to be “insignificant cultural units of transmission”, as they “do not occur at the level of [explicit] opinions or concepts, but alter sense ratios or patterns of perception steadily and without any resistance” (McLuhan 31).    

Just as McLuhan describes a medium as an “extension of ourselves” (McLuhan 19), Gavin Brown describes memes as a “product of the culture that people live in” (Brown 190) in his essay Web Culture: Using Memes to Spread and Manipulate Ideas on a Massive Scale. Just as a medium serves to propagate a message, Brown defines memes as “units of information that are transferred from one person to another” that “can be said to propagate itself, spreading from brain to brain” (Brown 190). He adds that, “the more a meme is shared, the longer it can survive and promote its messages or cultural values to viewers” (Brown 188).

As McLuhan notes, “the medium is the message because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action” (McLuhan 20). Thus, to maximize the scale of exposure of a meme, one must ensure that it is transferred through a “hot” form of media that is saturated with users. Hence why the Christchurch shooter live streamed his murders on Facebook, and wrote a 74 page manifesto nearly exclusively made up of internet memes (Romano 3), which Vox News described as “akin to what’s known as “shitposting” [a popular form of internet meme]— intentionally throwing out red-meat content to readers to distract them or draw them deeper into the same online pits where he himself was radicalized” (Coaston 9).

Conclusion

The Christchurch shooter is essentially reflection McLuhan’s notion that media “must be reduced to a very cool state before it can be learned or assimilated” (McLuhan, 40), and that “the disruptive impact of a hot technology succeeding a cool one… will serve to fragment a tribal structure” while cool media functions to “retribalize” (McLuhan 41). By indoctrinating an audience through white-supremist dog whistles disguised as memes, and making reference to popular “hot” media icons such as Pewdiepie, the Christchurch shooter aimed to seduce users of “hot” mainstream media to “cold” fringe spheres of the internet as a means by which to “retribalize” them into self-identifying with racist ideology. Through cyclical heat transfer of ideology, the Christchurch shooter attempted to perpetuate “cold” messages through a “hot medium”, in an attempt to insidiously indoctrinate user into participating in the proliferation of racist ideology.     

Works Cited

Brown, Gavin. “Web Culture: Using Memes to Spread and Manipulate Ideas on a Massive Scale.”, CommonKnowledge, 2013, https://commons.pacificu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=inter13

Coaston, Jane. “The New Zealand shooter’s manifesto shows how white nationalist rhetoric spreads.” Vox News, 2019, https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/3/15/18267163/new-zealand-shooting-christchurch-white-nationalism-racism-language

Daniels, Jessie. “the algorithmic rise of the “alt-right”.”, SagePub, 2017, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1536504218766547

Pettis, Ben. “PEPE THE FROG: A Case Study of the Internet Meme and its Potential Subversive Power to Challenge Cultural Hegemonies.” (Spring 2018). (PDF).

Prisk, Dan. “The Hyperreality of the Alt Right: How Meme Magic Works to Create a space for far right politics”. (26th March 2017). (PDF).

McLuhan, Marshall. "The Medium is the Message". Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. The MIT Press; REV edition (Oct. 24 1994). (PDF).

McLuhan, Marshall. "Media Hot and Cold". Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. The MIT Press; REV edition (Oct. 24 1994). (PDF).

Romano, Aja. “How the Christchurch shooter used memes to spread hate.” Vox News, 2019, https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/3/16/18266930/christchurch-shooter-manifesto-memes-subscribe-to-pewdiepie

Riemensperger, Kory. “Pepe's Power: Internet Memes, Constitutive Rhetoric, and Political Communities.”, ProQuest, 2018, https://search.proquest.com/openview/48e276b0d2813ccd209fa7361d46f9b8/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Heikkila, Niko. “Online Antagonism of the Alt-Right in the 2016 Election.”, OpenEdition, 2017, https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/12140

Mitchell, Liam. “A Phenomenological Study of Social Media: Boredom and Interest on Facebook, Reddit, and 4chan.”, Dspace, 2012, http://dspace.library.uvic.ca/bitstream/handle/1828/4045/Mitchell_Liam_PhD_2012.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

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Analytical Writing: Rhetorical Analysis of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Target Audience: rhetoric professor, anime fans, university students

Note: Written in the style of an anime review/commentary

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Neon Genesis Evangelion, directed by Hideaki Anno and produced by Gainax and Tatsunoko, is an animated television series originally broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 1995 to March 1996 for a total of 26 episodes. It falls under the popular anime genre of Mecha, characterized by its science fiction theme of, in simplest terms, machines controlled by people. However, this trope proves to be deceitful in the context of Neon Genesis Evangelion, as the biomorphic Evangelions, although they are appear controlled by humans and appear robotic, the motives behind the secretive Human Instrumentality Project for which they were deployed and their true forms are revealed in the latter half of the series. Specifically, this brief analysis will outline the conflicting philosophical rhetoric that subliminally primes the viewer to experience maximum impact from the finale, as well as the rhetorical vision and rhetorical illusion of realism that ostracizes the protagonist within the narrative of the infamous 25th and 26th episodes of the anime.

Shinji Ikari, a 14 year old boy whose emotionally distant father is responsible for the completion of the Human Instrumentality Project, is called to pilot an Evangelion against the Angels by his father, who pose a threat to post-cataclysmic Tokyo in year 2015. Shinji accepts this burden, despite the fact that his father had been absent for a majority of his life, as he see’s it as opportunity to create an identity for himself. After defeating seventeen angels throughout the first 24 episodes, he had come to realize that the Evangelions were not the robots they were initially introduced as, but rather a type of cyborg, physically restrained by their metallic plate armor, with their organic aspects being eerily similar to that of a human being. Evangelions are fitted with cores, which serve as a sort of cockpit—but instead of manual controls, they are controlled by the souls of their pilots.

Shinji is seen as abnormal and undesirable by his father for reasons stemming from the passing of Shinji’s mother. Shinji questions his father’s cruel and irrational disregard for his role as a paternal figure, but makes no successful efforts to rebel against his ostracizing behavior, as Shinji is severely disempowered within their relationship due to the Confucian-esque hierarchal structure of the post-cataclysmic Japan. Despite the entirety of the remaining cast being unfazed by this injustice, Shinji does not share this rhetorical vision, and subsequently questions the validity of his feelings as they differ so vastly from the rhetorical illusion of realism, ultimately causing him to experience a severe identity crisis throughout the 25th and 26th episodes.

Although the narrative was heavily guided by Shinji’s internal dialogue throughout the anime, this intensifies tenfold as the 25th and 26th episodes literally take place within his innermost thoughts, animating his deepest hopes and fears. At this climactic point, the animation takes a very dark turn, unpredictably changing styles to portray the conflicting philosophies of dualism and enactivism present within the narrative, documenting Shinji’s internal debate on what ought to believe in. The former is exemplified by the way the Evangelions are piloted within the core; the fact that utilize the human soul, as an autonomous energy source, rendering their pilots immobile. Whilst in this state, the pilots gain an out-of-body consciousness, as they are able to see their limp selves within the core. This lore provides a visualization of the concept of dualism, and thus this imagery remains with the viewer regardless if they are familiar with the philosophical term or not. The latter is exemplified when Shinji is questioned by a figment of his imagination, “Are you afraid that you will lose your identity if others leave you?” prompting Shinji to lament extensively on the importance that others had on his sense of being, admitting that their acknowledgement of him as a person was an integral part of his identity.

The 25th and 26th episodes are infamous as they typically leave the viewer questioning their existence and autonomy, as Shinji does not explicitly conclude the series by adopting dualistic or enactivistic perspective, nor does his existential crisis ever cease. The rhetoric within the narrative of the first 25 episodes subliminally familiarizes the viewer with both philosophies, enabling the huge impact that the final two episodes are known to leave. The rhetoric of Neon Genesis Evangelion is tailored to simultaneously provide understanding of the ideology of the society of post-cataclysmic Japan, and the development of Shinji’s personal beliefs regarding identity. Ultimately, this rhetoric set-up proves to be an integral part of the finale, as without it, the philosophical impact would not be nearly as strong.

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Scientific Writing: Iodine, Benedict’s, and Biuret Test for Starch/Glycogen, Reducing Sugars, and Protein, Respectively

Target Audience: Biology lab teaching assistants, university biology majors

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Introduction

The purpose of this experiment was to identify an unknown solution, Unknown Solution #153, through colour reactions observed during the iodine test, Benedict’s test, and biuret test. Upon the completion of the three tests, the identity of the particular biological macromolecule present in the unknown solution was deducted by comparing it to a control group that consisted of eleven known liquids that had undergone the same three tests.

Through observable colour changes, the iodine test, Benedict’s test, and biuret test are meant to identify the presence of certain biological macromolecules, namely specific carbohydrates, which include starch, glycogen, as well as reducing sugars, and proteins, specifically the peptide bonds that bind the amino acids that make up proteins (Harsha, 2006, p. 43-45, 55).

During the iodine test, one drop of each of the eleven known samples and one drop of the unknown sample were added to a spot-plate, where a drop of iodine was then added to each of the twelve drops of solutions. The iodine would turn blue-black in the presence of starch, reddish-brown in the presence of glycogen, or yield no change in a liquid containing neither starch nor glycogen (Harisha, 2006, p. 44). As starch’s structure, which is the polysaccharide where plants store the sugar glucose, has fewer branches than glycogen, it is able to bind with more iodine atoms, resulting in a more saturated blue-black colour (Harisha, 2006, p. 44). Glycogen, the larger polysaccharide structure that stores glucose in animals, has far more branches, and thus it is not able to bond with as many iodine atoms as starch, resulting in a weaker reddish-brown colour (Harisha, 2006, p. 44).

During the Benedict’s test, using the a Pasteur pipette, one millilitre each of the eleven known samples and 1 millilitre of the one unknown solution were combined with two millilitres of Benedict’s reagent, which consisted of an alkaline solution of copper II sulfate, sodium carbonate, and sodium citrate (Toole & Toole, 2004, p. 29) into a test tube, and was then heated in a boiling water bath with boiling chips for five minutes. After five minutes, a test tube clamp was used to remove the test tubes for observation. In the presence of monosaccharides and disaccharides known as reducing sugars, a precipitate of copper I oxide was formed (Toole & Toole, 2004, p. 29) after the addition of the Benedict’s reagent. The colour of the copper I oxide precipitate depended on the concentration of reducing sugar present. In order of lowest concentration to highest, the precipitate yielded could have been green, yellow, brown, or red, including combinations of the colours listed (Toole & Toole, 2004, p. 28). The reasoning behind this being that reducing sugars have a free aldehyde or ketone functional group in their chemical structure, which form a copper I oxide precipitate in an alkaline environment through a series of reduction and oxidation reactions (Toole & Toole, 2004, p. 28).

During the biuret test, one millilitre of the eleven known samples and one millilitre of the unknown solution were combined with the biuret reagent in a test tube, which consisted of two millilitres of the alkaline chemical, sodium hydroxide (Craig & Anderson, 2002, p. 761), and five drops of 1% copper sulfate (Nigam & Ayyagari, 2007, p. 49). Amino acids are bonded with peptide bonds to form proteins (Nigam & Ayyagari, 2007, p. 48). When exposed to alkaline copper sulfate, the peptide bonds yield a violet colour; the intensity of which depended on how much protein was present (Nigam & Ayyagari, 2007, p. 49).

Upon completion of the iodine test, Benedict’s test, and biuret test, a control group was obtained, consisting of the results of the eleven known liquids and the single unknown solution. With this large control group, that included both positive results that indicated the occurrence of a colour change, and negative results that indicated no change, the unknown sample of Solution #153 could be compared to all possible outcomes of the three tests. Though this comparative method, a hypothetical conclusion, regarding which biological macromolecule is present in the unknown solution, was made.

Discussion

The iodine test yielded a total of two positive results when conducted with the 1% glycogen solution in tube 7, and the 1% starch solution in tube 8, while the remaining tubes had no changes observed in their colour. Upon the addition of a drop of iodine into the drop of 1% starch solution from tube 8, it changed from a transparent liquid to a blue-black coloured liquid, indicating the presence of starch (Harisha, 2006, p. 44). The intense blue-black colour is a result of the bonding of iodine atoms to the few branches of the starch polysaccharide’s structure (Harisha, 2006, p. 44). Tube 7 contained 1% glycogen solution, and when one drop of iodine was added to one drop of 1% glycogen solution in the spot-dish, it changed from a transparent liquid to a reddish-brown liquid. This change in colour indicated that glycogen was present in the 1% glycogen solution (Harisha, 2006, p. 44). Glycogen, given it’s large polysaccharide structure, is unable to bond with as many iodine atoms as starch, resulting in a less intense reddish-brown colour (Harisha, 2006, p. 44). The lack of change when a drop of iodine was added to a drop of the samples from the 1% glucose in tube 1, the 0.3% glucose-1-phosphate in tube 2, the 1% maltose solution in tube 3, the honey solution in tube 4, the 1% sucrose solution in tube 5, the 1% lactose solution in tube 6, the protein in tube 9, the beer in tube10, the distilled water in tube 11, as well as the Unknown Solution #153 in tube 12, indicated that neither starch nor glycogen was present in the sample. Given that the two positive results obtained from the iodine test were solutions of starch and glycogen, it was expected that colour reactions would occur (Harisha, 2006, p. 44).

Benedict’s test yielded six positive results. Upon combining the eleven known samples and one unknown sample in a test tube, and placing them in a boiling water bath for five minutes, the 1% glucose solution in tube 1, the 1% maltose solution in tube 3, the honey solution in tube 4, the 1% lactose solution in tube 6, the beer in tube 10, and the Unknown Solution #153 in tube 12, resulted in a formation of a precipitate of copper I oxide in various colours (Toole & Toole, 2004, p. 29). The concentration of the reducing sugar present dictated what colour of copper I oxide was formed (Toole & Toole, 2004, p. 28). In order of lowest to highest concentration of reducing sugar, Benedict’s yielded a yellow copper I oxide precipitate with the sample of beer, a brown copper I oxide precipitate with the samples of 1% glucose, 1% maltose solution, honey solution, and 1% lactose solution, and a reddish-brown copper I oxide precipitate with the sample of Unknown Solution #153 (Toole & Toole, 2004, p. 28). Given that the Unknown Solution yielded a copper I oxide precipitate that indicated it had the highest concentration of reducing sugar of all the other eleven known solutions, it can be deducted that it contains a significant amount of the biological macromolecule of carbohydrates, or more specifically, reducing sugars (Toole & Toole, 2004, p. 28).

The biuret test yielded a single positive result when conducted, while the rest were negative. During the test, the eleven known samples and single unknown solution were combined with the biuret reagent, consisting of two mililitres of sodium hydroxide and five drops of copper sulfate (Nigam & Ayyagari, 2007, p. 49). Upon combination, only the protein solution in tube 9 underwent an observable colour reaction. From it’s initial transparent colour, it changed into a violet shade when combined with the biuret reagent. This indicates that there are proteins present in tube 9, as when exposed to the biuret reagent, the peptide bonds that hold together the amino acids that make up proteins will yield a violet colour (Nigam & Ayyagari, 2007, p. 49). As no colour change was observed when the 1% glucose in tube 1, the 0.3% glucose-1-phosphate in tube 2, the 1% maltose solution in tube 3, the honey solution 4, the 1% sucrose solution in tube 5, the 1% lactose solution in tube 6, the 1% glycogen solution in tube 7, the 1% starch solution in tube 8, the beer in tube 10, the distilled water in tube 11, or the Unknown Solution #153 in tube 12, it indicates that none of those samples contained any peptide bonds, and thus subsequently contained no traces of protein. The intensity of the violet depended entirely on the amount of protein present, and therefore the biuret test is able to yield the faintest of violet shades when the slightest of protein is present. Due to the precise nature of the biuret test, a confident conclusion can be made that Unknown Solution #153 did not contain any protein (Nigam & Ayyagari, 2007, p. 49).

Thus, it can be deducted through comparison to the control groups obtained through the iodine test for starch or glycogen, the Benedict’s Test for reducing sugars, and the Biuret test for protien, that Unknown Solution #153 contained the biological molecule of carbohydrates, or more specifically, reducing sugars, as it resulted in a positive colour reaction during the Benedict’s Test (Toole & Toole, 2004, p. 29).

References

Craig, B., & Ayyagari, A. (2007). 2nd Edition Handbook of Corrosion Data. United States of America: ASM International.

Harisha, S. (2006). An Introduction to Practical Biotechnology. New Dheli, India: Laxami Publications (P) Ltd.

Nigam, A., & Ayyagari, A. (2007). Lab Manual in Biochemistry, Immunology and Biotechnology. New Dheli, India: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited.

Toole, G., & Toole, S. (2004). Essential AS Biology for OCR. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Nelson Thormes Ltd.

University of Waterloo. (2014). Courseware Fall 2014 BIOL 130L. (All procedure was followed from BIOL 130 Lab Manual of Fall 2014, without deviations, as outlined in paged 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21).

[stefanistarivlah]

Philosophical/Critique Writing: Commentary on Don Marquis’ paper in the 1986 issue of The Journal of Philosophy

Target Audience: philosophy professor, philosophy teaching assistants

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Beginning from the 11th to the 17th paragraph of Don Marquis’ paper in the 1986 issue of The Journal of Philosophy, Don Marquis elaborates on the sanctity of human life, and how is serves as a basis for the anti-abortionist notion that it is prima facie wrong to end human life. The doctrine of sanctity of human life, as per Marquis application of it in his piece, directly correlates the value of human life to ones potential, emphasizing that human life holds value simply for the fact that it is that of which uniquely defines human beings; through future experiences that shape one’s outlook, and ultimately, one’s entity. Thus, the deontological notion entails that it is fundamentally immoral to rob one of their potential to experience the life by which they are defined through. This would be, according to Marquis, the greatest loss imaginable.

As one nears the end of the passage, it becomes apparent that by defining the value of human life though the potential it holds in terms of experiences by which ones being is defined, subsequently the lives of the severely mentally disabled, extremely elderly, and such persons who’s experiences and potential are hindered, are consequently de-valued—resulting in an ableist connotation. In this case, can the killing of the terminally ill, extreme elderly, and severely mentally disabled, be justified, as these individuals, by the definition that the value of human life is directly correlated to it’s potential, fail to garner value? This underlying symbolic harm is perplexing, as it contradicts Marquis’ general notion that to end human life is seriously morally wrong.

Marquis goes on to describe those dying of AIDS and cancer as persons who mourn the loss of their potential to further experience human life, attributing their anguish to impending premature death. However, death itself is arguably the most inevitable thing of all, as the only thing one knows to be entirely true is immortality. Thus, the sorrow of the terminally ill cannot be credited solely to death itself, but rather that which causes it. Just as an accidental or untimely death is more tragic than it’s natural counterpart, it is the cause by which death occurs that defines it. Just as the death of a child is more ill-fated than the end of a long and fruitful life, the circumstances by which death occurs must be placed at equal consideration as the life of the person in question. Therefore both circumstance and person, comparing the quality of ones life to the way it was taken—this is what defines death. Thus, immense suffering becomes a reasonable ground for voluntary death, regardless of what potential said life may still hold.

If one were to ask how these points made by Marquis, the first one being of ableist connotation, and the second one generalizing that death in all forms is feared, can not apply to abortion, one must realize that the organism in question is one that is completely void of any thought process to understand any of the aforementioned. To equate the ending of fetal life to murder is absurd as most gametes with the entirely same potential and thought capacity are “wasted” in this same sense, as millions are lost per day though entirely normal bodily functions. As well, there are infinite genetic combinations of potential persons during the time of conception that fail to see life. Just as natural selection can cruelly determine life and lack-there-of, the same can be said for the body of the mother-to-be. The fate of the fetus lies solely within their mother’s biologically predetermined ability to carry the child to term— a natural process that has the capability to involuntarily fail at any given moment. Realistically, a majority of fertilized eggs fail to implant, never even reaching the point of sentient being-hood, regardless of whatever potential they may posses. Thus, with the common occurrence of natural miscarriages, to regard the intentional end of fetal life as extremely morally wrong is unreasonable.

Marquis’ heavy dependence on the potentiality argument is what makes his argument vulnerable. He insists that the value of a fetus comes from the fact that they have the potential to experience life just as adult humans do, and thus they are in possession of a valuable future, which ought to be preserved. However, as mentioned before, there are many other cells that hold potential akin to that of a fetus, namely skin cells, spermatozoa, and ovum, amongst others, thus reducing the potentiality argument to absurdum. Rather than to rely on the potentiality of a fetus, Marquis should put more emphasis on the personhood of a fetus, and how he would define moral agency. Commonly, sentience is regarded as one of the defining feature of beings with moral status, which a fetus obtains during the second trimester. With this, Marquis could argue that abortion is immoral on the basis that it goes against the fetus’ primal interest of avoiding pain, as the fetus now posses moral standing since it has been defined as a sentient being. Through sentience, Marquis could define the moral standing of a fetus, and more soundly address the issue of the morality of abortion.

Works Cited

Marquis, Don. “Why Abortion Is Immoral.” Bioethics In Canada.Charles Weijer et al. Don Mills, Ontario, Canada: Oxford University Press, 2013. 23-24. Print.