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Power of Three
March 31, 2010
Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.
-Cesar Chavez, Civil Rights Activist, 1927-1993
"The world's greatest orators have always spoken in threes.  Julius Caesar's 'veni, vidi, vici,' for example.  Or Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address: 'we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.'  This observation comes from Kevin Dutton in his article, "The Power to Persuade" in Scientific American Mind (March 2010).  He goes on to say...

"The device, known as the tricolon, is among a number of rhetorical secrets first identified by the speakers of the ancient world, classical orators such as Cicero, Demosthenes, and Socrates.... Its magic lies in its efficiency:  a third word gives confirmation and completes a point, it is also economical, constituting the earliest stage at which a possible connection, implied by the first two words, may be substantiated.  More than three, and you risk going on and on.  Fewer than three, and your argument lands prematurely."


[Note: 3 Words! — Are you hooked?]

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Comments (1)

Displaying 1 Comment
Laura Friedman · March 31, 2010
Creativity in Learning
Cumberland, Maine, United States


Your brief discussion of the "tricolon" connects my thoughts almost immediately to David Hawkins' "I, Thou, and It" essay from the collection THE INFORMED VISION: ESSAYS ON LEARNING AND HUMAN NATURE.

An introduction to this essay can be found at http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=24552577.

Here are a few lines from this brief introduction:

"To have respect for children is more than recognizing their potentialities in
the abstract, it is also to seek out and value their accomplishments--however
small these may appear by the normal standards of adults. But if we follow this
track of thinking one thing stands out. We must provide for children those
kinds of environments which elicit their interests and talents and which
deepen their engagement in practice and thought. An environment of "lov-
ing" adults who are themselves alienated from the world around them is an
educational vacuum."



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