Emotion
"Human behaviour flows from three main
sources: desire, emotion and knowledge."
-Plato
EMIRATES INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
Yr.12 TOK Retreat
28th JANUARY 2011
Activity 1
Work together in your table groups.
Talk and about and think of as many emotions
as you can.
Strong
Now, draw a scale on a large piece of
paper, like this:
Choose one emotion, which is neither
positive nor clearly negative and put it
at zero:
Negative
Positive
0
Place each emotion on this scale
according to the degree of its
"positiveness" or "negativeness“,
and its relative strength.
Weak
Contemplate about and try to re-feel some of the following more subtle
emotions/feelings/moods. Try to fit those on your scale too. Link these
emotions with the ones already on your scale (so that you put the similar
category of emotions close to each other on the scale):
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Resentment
Eagerness
Pain
Merriness
Jealousy
Hate
Frustration
Anxiety
Pity
Self-Pity
Sadness
Love
Guilt
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Envy
Pleasure
Passion
Covert hostility
Appreciation
Shame
Annoyance
Cynicism
Interest
Aesthetic Feeling
Love for a Partner
Love for a Pet or a Landscape
When you have completely finished, compare and discuss your scale of
emotions with those of others in your group.
Activity 2 – Using/Abusing Emotion
• How do great speakers and communicators use
emotion?
• What can they do with this appeal to our emotions?
• Convince/Persuade/Stir-up/Alienate/Distort?
Activity 2 – Background
• The US Declaration of Independence – July 4th 1776, states
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness.”
• By the 1960’s this was still NOT a reality. Black people were
oppressed, segregated and discriminated against, particularly
in the southern states of the US, notably in Alabama, Georgia,
Tennessee and Mississippi.
• It was these injustices of society which Martin Luther King Jr.
campaigned against.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on August 28, 1963
“This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new
meaning 'My country 'tis of thee/Sweet land of Liberty/Of thee I sing/Land
where my fathers died/Land of the Pilgrim's Pride/From every
mountainside/Let freedom ring.' And if America is to be a great nation, this
must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New
Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let
freedom ring from the heightening Alleghanies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom
ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the
curvaceous slopes of California, but not only that, let freedom ring from
Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of
Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From
every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we allow
freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet,
from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all
of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants
and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old
Negro spiritual:
‘Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last.’”
Look at the sheet of the text of Martin Luther King’s speech and answer the
following questions.
• What techniques does he use to
“whip up” people’s emotions?
Try to find as many different ways
you can in which he raises the
listener’s emotional level.
• Give examples of these – mark on
the sheet everything you have
identified
• What is he trying to say – sum up
his main message in one
sentence.
“This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing
with new meaning 'My country 'tis of thee/Sweet land of Liberty/Of
thee I sing/Land where my fathers died/Land of the Pilgrim's
Pride/From every mountainside/Let freedom ring.' And if America is
to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring
from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring
from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the
heightening Alleghanies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the
snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the
curvaceous slopes of California, but not only that, let freedom ring
from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout
Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill
of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when
this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring
from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every
city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children,
black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and
Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old
Negro spiritual:
‘Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last.’”
Techniques which King uses:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Repetition: “Let freedom ring”, “when” &”every”
Appeal to a higher power: “God’s Children”
Strong/BIG language: “mighty mountains” etc.
Inclusive language: “black/white” etc.
Alliteration: “mighty mountains”
Change from referring to “good” places to “bad
places”
Aristotle on Speakers (from “Rhetoric”)
“Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken
word there are three kinds:
• The first kind depends on the personal character of the
speaker [ethos]
• The second on putting the audience into a certain frame of
mind [pathos]
• The third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the
words of the speech itself [logos].”
To what extent does Martin Luther King's speech rely on
Aristotle’s three ways for its effect?
Questions to think about:
• Are the techniques Martin Luther King used, and Aristotle’s
theories about speakers, only applicable to speakers and
speeches?
• What about advertising – could they be applied there?
• What about news broadcasting – could they be applied there?
• What about books – could they be applied there?
Activity 3 - Emotion in Writing
Some Facts:
• Name: Steve Biko
• Date of birth: 18 December 1946,
King William's Town, Eastern Cape,
South Africa
• Leader of the Black Consciousness
Movement, Founder of the South
African Students' Organisation
• Date of death: 12 September
1977, Pretoria prison cell, South
Africa
The Background - Apartheid
•
Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949
Prohibited marriages between white people and people of other races. Between 1946 and the enactment
of this law, only 75 mixed marriages had been recorded, compared with some 28,000 white marriages.
•
Immorality Amendment Act, Act No 21 of 1950; amended in 1957 (Act 23)
Prohibited adultery, attempted adultery or related immoral acts (extra-marital sex) between white and
black people.
•
Population Registration Act, Act No 30 of 1950
Led to the creation of a national register in which every person's race was recorded. A Race Classification
Board took the final decision on what a person's race was in disputed cases.
•
Group Areas Act, Act No 41 of 1950
Forced physical separation between races by creating different residential areas for different races. Led to
forced removals of people living in "wrong" areas, for example Coloureds living in District Six in Cape Town.
•
Reservation of Separate Amenities Act, Act No 49 of 1953
Forced segregation in all public amenities, public buildings, and public transport with the aim of
eliminating contact between whites and other races. "Europeans Only" and "Non-Europeans Only" signs
were put up. The act stated that facilities provided for different races need not be equal.
•
Terrorism Act of 1967
Allowed for indefinite detention without trial and established BOSS, the Bureau of State Security, which
was responsible for the internal security of South Africa.
Images of Apartheid
Images of Apartheid
Images of Apartheid
Images of Apartheid
Images of Apartheid
Feelings?
• what feelings/emotions do these images
conjure up in your mind?
• Think about them as you do the following
activity:
Accounts of the death of Biko
• Read the accounts (Sources A-H) of Steve Biko’s death.
• Highlight any language you feel the writer has used to
produce an emotional response from the reader.
• Identify the attitude of the each writer to Biko – speculate on
what sort of person might have written the account.
• Identify words/phrases which tell you the attitude.
• Speculate on/Identify the emotion behind each phrase.
• Comment on Source E . . . . What publication is it from? Why
is the date significant?
Questions to think about:
• Are Aristotle’s words about speakers equally
applicable to the written words, and to visual
images?
• How can we as listeners, readers and/or viewers “cut
through” the emotional curtain, and see the truth?
• How can we make sure we are not fooled by people
who try to take advantage of our emotions?
Bibliography
The Rhetoric and the Poetics of Aristotle (Modern Library College Editions) McGraw-Hill
Companies; (February 1, 1984)
Website: http://www.dailywav.com/ka.html
What is Evidence? South Africa during the years of Apartheid, Rob Sieborger, Gail Weldon, Chris
Hinton; John Murray; (1999)