Traditional+Rhetoric+as+applicable+to+Minecraft

Can you connect Plato to Minecraft? (I can think of one way of connecting Aristotle to Minecraft... his four causes?)



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=--Definition of Rhetoric-- = [|Rhetoric] is communication that aims to persuade or motivate audiences on particular topics. The format for creating a rhetorical speech as adopted by Aristotle includes 3 persuasive audience appeals: logos (logical appeal), pathos (emotional appeal) and ethos (moral appeal). The 5 canons of rhetoric, codified in Rome, are about how to design a persuasive speech and they are invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery. Rhetoric, grammar and logic are the 3 ancient arts of discourse and[| Aristotle’s 4 causes]states that in order to understand something, especially the changes that it might undergo, one has to understand the four causes, or 4 explanations as to how things come about: 1) the form of the object (which will be altered during a change); 2) the matter underlying the object (which will usually not be altered during a change); 3) the agency that brings about the change; and 4) the purpose served by the change. These are called, respectively, the formal cause, the material cause, the efficient cause, and the final cause. Applying traditional rhetoric to Minecraft by viewing the game from Aristotle’s 4 causes point of view yields the following.

**Applying Rhetoric to Minecraft... **
The formal cause is its form and in Minecraft, that would be the video game itself. Minecraft is a sandbox or [|open game]in which the player can roam freely throughout a virtual world as well as choose freely the objectives of the game. An open world game is non linear and facilitates exploration as it provides a vast open area with many ways to reach an objective. Typical of an open world game is that the player is given unlimited lives, the character is a blank slate and there is a risk that a player can get lost in their world. The storyline in Minecraft is a player is given natural resources from which he or she will build their environment starting from crafting tools to building shelters and homes.The form of the object changes as a player puts time into the game, they save the game which has been altered by the activity the player has engaged in.

The material cause is the raw material of which the item is composed. In the case of Minecraft this would be the tangible game and the electronic program.

The efficient cause is a player playing the game.

The final cause is the goal of the game and I maintain that the intrinsic rhetoric of Minecraft has 3 messages: if you work hard you get places, resources are free and available to everyone, and everyone has a right to free speech.

The game includes 2 basic commands which are the harvest/destroy block and the place block. By using these commands a player is able to change the world by creating tools or machines that help to build buildings, bridges and other structures. As the player moves around the open world and changes the landscape, they start to benefit from their hard work and progress in the game. The harder you work at building, the more you have achieved in the game.

The resources are free and available. There is nothing stopping the player from going out and getting resources other than figuring out how to get all the resources necessary. Much of the game is collecting resources and then building from the resources gathered.

The right to free speech is implied by the game as a player is allowed to build anything anywhere. There are no rules about how to go about the game and nothing is prohibited. A player is free to try things and use them in subsequent games.