Fable - denten-courses/metaphor-media GitHub Wiki

Synthesis

Fables are generally defined as concise, straightforward narratives which utilize animals or elements of nature to achieve a particular moral or instructive purpose. The majority of the texts cited below can agree upon this point that each fable is a vivid, attractive, and illustrative way to demonstrate an essence of morality. Yet, what further complicates the word's meanings and connotations throughout the historical arc of rhetorical analysis, is that fables can also be used for the purpose of deception, persuasion, and historical storytelling.

Aristotle reiterates the use of animals within fables in the stag, horse, and man narrative, but he also elaborates upon the more complex rhetorical purposes due to its inventive origins and oratorical use. For Aristotle, the basis of each fable is inventive creativity, but he suggests that it is easier to invent rather than to state a factual truth. Thus, he draws an inherent distinction between truth and the false imagination of fables, perhaps privileging the difficulty of stating truth rather than inventing fables. Augustine pushes this argument further by suggesting that the invention of these fables is based on lies, pleasure, and faulty human devices, establishing a negative connotation of fables.

The negative deceptive purpose of fables is one which also persists in the discussion of its historical use. Vico demonstrates how each culture utilized fables to tell the history of their nation; for example, the first fable of Jove or God creating the world. The first science was then in deciphering these fables of genesis. Yet, he suggests that these fables were "defective in its beginnings" meaning that they were not accurate or truthful, an argument that Bacon reiterates when he states that history is "injured by fables." For both thinkers, fables are misleading versions of reality, due to the fact that each necessitate interpretation in order to decipher their meaning and these interpretations may be biased or faulty.

As such, each author can agree that fables are a deviation from truth and fact when they are utilized. Rather than demonstrate an accurate representation of a story, fables are creative, imaginary, and perhaps unrealistic. This places a considerable amount of agency in the pen of the author, who can determine the overall truthfulness or factuality of the tale. Even though fables are generally agreed to not present truth, they do possess a high level of power. While Vico may claim that genesis fables are defective in nature, he cannot discount their wide influence, notoriety, and popularity in society.

While some thinkers and philosophers may attempt to undervalue the use of fables, an orator's use of fables can wield an advantageous power as a means of persuasion. Aristotle states that fables were ideal for oratorical speeches, as they served a similar function to an analogy. Erasmus too agrees that the use of fables can be quite convincing and compelling, as demonstrated when Meneius Agrippa was able to convince the Roman populace to not commit sedition simply by utilizing a fable in his speech. Perhaps fables are so highly persuasive because they are extremely accessible to the public regardless of one's academic background. It may also be due to the use of compelling and memorable natural imagery that is in each fable. For as described by Vico, fables possess a high level of universality and univocality; they unite the public because many can relate to and remember the lessons within each.

The overarching complexity of fables may be due to the fact that it is truly the intent of the author of the fable which determines the story's subsequent use and purpose. If the author intends to deceive, the fable can be written to achieve that purpose. If the orator hopes to persuade, then the fable can be manipulated as necessary to achieve this end. When we read a fable, we are entertained by the vivid narrative while having the opportunity to discern their meaning and apply it accordingly to our own lives, which is why fables can be utilized for a wide variety of purposes such as inventive storytelling, deception, and persuasion.

Quotes

Fables are suitable for public speaking, and they have this advantage that, while it is difficult to find similar things that have really happened in the past, it is easier to invent fables ; for they must be invented, like comparisons, if a man is capable of seizing the analogy; Thus, while the lessons conveyed by fables are easier to provide, those derived from facts are more useful for deliberative oratory, because as a rule the future resembles the past.

Aristotle. The Art of Rhetoric Translated by John Henry Freese. (London: William Heinemann, 1996): 277.

Finally, the thousands of fables and fictions, in whose lies men take delight, are human devices, and nothing is to be considered more peculiarly man's own and derived from himself than anything that is false and lying.

Marcus Dods Augustine, J. F. Shaw, and S. D. F. Salmond. On Christian doctrine: the Enchiridion (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1873): 63.

The fables of the poets, which are but fictitious creations and things devised for the pleasure of minds.

Marcus Dods Augustine, J. F. Shaw, and S. D. F. Salmond. On Christian doctrine: the Enchiridion (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1873): 278.

It follows that the first science to be learned should be mythology or the interpretation of fables; for, as we shall see, all the histories of the gentiles have their beginnings in fables, which were the first histories of the gentile nations. By such a method the beginnings of the sciences as well as of the nations are to be dis- covered, for they sprang from the nations and from no other source. This is the proper starting-point for universal history, which all scholars say is defective in its beginnings.

Vico, Giambattista. The New Science (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1725): 55.

For they have been misled by the fable that the Law of the Twelve Tables came from free Athens to set up popular liberty in Rome, whereas these two laws declare it to have been set up at home by the natural customs of the Romans themselves.

Vico, Giambattista. The New Science (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1725): 39.

We inquire into the reasons why the philosophers later had such a desire to recover the wisdom of the ancients, as well as into the occasions the fables provided them for bestirring themselves to meditate lofty things in philosophy, and into the opportunities they had for reading their own hidden wisdom into the fables

Vico, Giambattista. The New Science (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1725): 44.

The true poetic allegories which gave the fables univocal rather than analogous meanings for various particulars comprised under their poetic genera. They were therefore called diversiloquid, that is, expressions comprising in one general concept various species of men, deeds, or things.

Vico, Giambattista. The New Science (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1725): 67.

Fables are very similar to legendary tales, except that fables are more immediately attractive and make the point more effectively. Their attraction is due to their witty imitation of the way people behave, and the hearers give their assent because the truth is set out vividly before their very eyes. Fables are particularly effective with uneducated and unsophisticated people, and anyone else whose ways still have a whiff of the days of yore

Erasmus. De Copia (Toronto, Canadá: University of Toronto, 1973): 631.

For the so-called [moral],that is,the interpretation of the fable, it does not matter much whether you put it at the beginning or the end. You can in fact both begin with it and end on it, provided you incorporate variety of language (633).

Erasmus. De Copia (Toronto, Canadá: University of Toronto, 1973): 633.

There are also appropriate characteristics to be observed in fables, and this no one will be able to manage unless he has observed and studied the natures of living creatures, and knows that the elephant is quick to learn and reverent, the dolphin an enemy of the crocodile and a friend of man,that the eagle builds its nest on heights... Orators make use of fables.

Erasmus. De Copia (Toronto, Canadá: University of Toronto, 1973): 585.

Those who wished to prove the advantages of obeying the laws or of following the advice of the best informed had no simpler method than to imagine circumstantial facts of an event which they presented as being adverse or favorable, depending on their point of View, with the double advantage of instruction and persuasion. This is the origin of the apologue or fable. Its first aim was evidently instruction, and consequently the subjects were chosen from the most familiar things, closely related to the senses.

Condillac, Etienne Bonnot De. Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001): 182.

Yet it is not right to suffer our belief in true history to be diminished, because it is sometimes injured and violated by fables.

Bacon, Francis, and F. H. Anderson. The New Organon (New York: Macmillan, 1987): 67.

Examples

There are two kinds of examples ; namely, one which consists in relating things that have happened before,and another in inventing them oneself. The latter are subdivided into comparisons or fables, such as those of Aesop and the Libyan.
A fable, to give an example, is that of Stesichorus concerning Phalaris, For Stesichorus, when the people of Himera had chosen Phalaris dictator and were on the point of giving him a body-guard, after many arguments related a fable to them : "A horse was in sole occupation of a meadow. A stag having come and done much damage to the pasture, the horse, wishing to avenge himself on the stag, asked a man whether he could help him to punish the stag. The man consented, on condition that the horse submitted to the bit and allowed him to mount him javelins in hand. The horse agreed to the terms and the man mounted him, but instead of obtaining vengeance on the stag, the horse from that time became the man's slave. So then," said he, " do you take care lest, in your desire to avenge yourselves on the enemy, you be treated like the horse. You already have the bit, since you have chosen a dictator ; if you give him a body-guard and allow him to mount you, you will at once be the slaves of Phalaris`.".
Aesop, when defending at Samos a demagogue who was being tried for his life, related the following anecdote. "A fox, while crossing a river, was driven into a ravine. Being unable to get out, she was for a long time in sore distress, and a number of dog-fleas clung to her skin. A hedgehog, wandering about, saw her and, moved with com- passion, asked her if he should remove the fleas. The fox refused and when the hedgehog asked the reason, she answered,'They are already full of reason and draw little blood ; but if you take them away, others will come that are hungry and will drain what remains to me.' You in like manner, O Samians, will suffer no more harm from this man, for he is wealthy ; but if you put him to death, others will come who are poor, who will steal and squander your public funds.

Aristotle. The Art of Rhetoric Translated by John Henry Freese. (London: William Heinemann, 1996): 273, 275, 277.

[One of these giants, Prometheus, steals fire from the sun. Year of the world 1856.] From this fable we perceive that Heaven reigned on earth, when it was believed to be no higher than the mountain tops, according to the vulgar tradition that also tells that it left great and numerous benefits to the human race.
In this fashion the first theological poets created the first divine fable, the greatest they ever created: that of Jove, king and father of men and gods, in the act of hurling the lightning bolt; an image so popular, disturbing and instructive that its creators themselves believed in it, and feared, revered and worshiped it.

Vico, Giambattista. The New Science (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1725): 59, 130.

When the north wind blows, it tries to tear away a man's coat by main force, and he wraps it the more tightly round him; but if the sun cockers him with a warm breeze, of his own accord he throws off coat and waistcoat too. In the same way a wife who tries to recall her spouse from extravagance by abusing him makes him worse, and if she takes it calmly and asks him civilly,she does more good.
As for using fables, they can be indicated by a single word, just as illustrative examples can, especially if the fable is well known. You could for example say: If the ignorant criticize your work and tear it to shreds, don't be upset. Those who know anything about the subject think highly of it. After all, the cock in Aesop's fable did not appreciate the jewel. Or this: One should not despise or disregard any enemy, however weak and humble, seeing that the eagle in Aesop's tale had to pay for scorning the beetle. Or this: Rely on your own achievements, not on the glory of your ancestors,or you may suffer the same fate as Aesop's crow.
Menenius Agrippa persuaded the Roman populace to abandon a most dangerous sedition by inventing for the occasion the fable of the parts of the body conspiring against the belly.

Erasmus. De Copia (Toronto, Canadá: University of Toronto, 1973): 166, 631, 632.

But we may well apply to them the fable of the old man, who bequeathed to his sons some gold buried in his garden, pretending not to know the exact spot, whereupon they worked diligently in digging the vineyard, and though they found no gold, the vintage was rendered more abundant by their labor.

Bacon, Francis, and F. H. Anderson. The New Organon (New York: Macmillan, 1987): 65.

Aesop's Fables:

The Hare & the Tortoise A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow. "Do you ever get anywhere?" he asked with a mocking laugh. "Yes," replied the Tortoise, "and I get there sooner than you think. I'll run you a race and prove it." The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off. The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up. The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.The race is not always to the swift.

Aesop, Aesop's Fables (Library of Congress. http://read.gov/aesop/001.html.)

Works Cited

Aesop, "Aesop's Fables." Library of Congress. http://read.gov/aesop/001.html.
Aristotle. The Art of Rhetoric. Translated by John Henry Freese. London: William Heinemann, 1996.
Bacon, Francis, and F. H. Anderson. The New Organon. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
Condillac, Etienne Bonnot De. Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Erasmus. De Copia. Toronto, Canadá: University of Toronto, 1973.
Vico, Giambattista. The New Science, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1725.
Marcus Dods Augustine, J. F. Shaw, and S. D. F. Salmond. On Christian doctrine: the Enchiridion. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1873.