Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Toscano, Aaron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Conference Presentations
    • PCA/ACA Conference Presentation 2022
    • PCAS/ACAS Presentation 2021
    • SEACS 2021 Presentation
    • South Atlantic MLA Conference 2022
  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-014: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • February 1st: Reflection on Workplace Messages
    • January 11th: More Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Audience & Purpose
    • January 23rd: Résumés and Cover Letters
      • Duty Format for Résumés
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • January 25th: More on Résumés and Cover Letters
    • January 30th: Achieving a Readable Style
      • Euphemisms
      • Prose Practice for Next Class
      • Prose Revision Assignment
      • Revising Prose: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Good
      • Sentence Clarity
    • January 9th: Introduction to the Class
    • Major Assignments
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • August 24th: Introduction to the Class
    • August 31st: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Fall 2022)
      • Rhetoric of Fear
    • November 16th: Voice and Other Nebulous Writing Terms
      • Finding Dominant Rhetorical Appeals
    • November 2nd: Rhetorical Effects of Punctuation
    • November 30th: Words and Word Classes
    • November 9th: Cohesive Rhythm
    • October 12th: Choosing Adjectivals
    • October 19th: Choosing Nominals
    • October 26th: Stylistic Variations
    • October 5th: Midterm Exam
    • September 14th: Verb is the Word!
    • September 21st: Coordination and Subordination
    • September 28th: Form and Function
    • September 7th: Sentence Patterns
  • ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology
    • April 13th: Authorities in Science and Technology
    • April 15th: Articles on Violence in Video Games
    • April 20th: Presentations
    • April 6th: Technology in the home
    • April 8th: Writing Discussion
    • Assignments for ENGL 4275
    • February 10th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 12th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 17th: Technology and Gender
    • February 19th: Technology and Expediency
    • February 24th: Semester Review
    • February 3rd: Religion of Technology Part 1 of 3
    • February 5th: Religion of Technology Part 2 of 3
    • January 13th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 15th: Technology and Democracy
    • January 22nd: The Politics of Technology
    • January 27th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • January 29th: Technology and Postmodernism
    • January 8th: Introduction to the Course
    • March 11th: Writing and Other Fun
    • March 16th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 2
    • March 18th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 2
    • March 23rd: Inception (2010)
    • March 25th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • March 30th & April 1st: Count Zero
    • March 9th: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984)
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 12th: Knoblauch. Ch. 4 and Ch. 5
    • April 19th: Jacques Derrida’s Positions
    • April 26th:  Feminisms and Rhetorics
    • April 5th: Knoblauch. Ch. 3 and More Constitutive Rhetoric
    • February 15th: Isocrates (Part 2)
    • February 1st: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Books 2 & 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • February 22nd: St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
    • February 8th: Isocrates (Part 1)-2nd Half of Class
    • January 11th: Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Plato’s Phaedrus
    • January 25th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Book 1
    • March 15th: Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method
    • March 1st: Knoblauch. Ch. 1 and 2
    • March 22nd: Mary Wollstonecraft
    • March 29th: Second Wave Feminist Rhetoric
    • May 3rd: Knoblauch. Ch. 6, 7, and “Afterword”
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • ENGL/COMM/WRDS: The Rhetoric of Fear
    • January 10th: Introduction to the Class
    • January 17th: Scapegoats & Conspiracies
    • January 24th: The Rhetoric of Fear and Fallacies Part 1
    • January 31st: Fallacies Part 2 and American Politics Part 1
    • Major Assignments
  • LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127
    • August 21st: Introduction to Class
    • August 23rd: Humanistic Approach to Science Fiction
    • August 26th: Robots and Zombies
    • August 28th: Futurism, an Introduction
    • August 30th: R. A. Lafferty “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
    • December 2nd: Technological Augmentation
    • December 4th: Posthumanism
    • November 11th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2)
    • November 13th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2 con’t)
    • November 18th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 1)
      • More Questions than Answers
    • November 1st: Games Reality Plays (part II)
    • November 20th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 2)
    • November 6th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 1)
    • October 14th: More Autonomous Fun
    • October 16th: Autonomous Conclusion
    • October 21st: Sci Fi in the Domestic Sphere
    • October 23rd: Social Aphasia
    • October 25th: Dust in the Wind
    • October 28th: Gender Liminality and Roles
    • October 2nd: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • October 30th: Games Reality Plays (part I)
    • October 9th: Approaching Autonomous
      • Analyzing Prose in Autonomous
    • September 11th: The Time Machine
    • September 16th: The Alien Other
    • September 18th: Post-apocalyptic Worlds
    • September 20th: Dystopian Visions
    • September 23rd: World’s Beyond
    • September 25th: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • September 30th: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown
      • More on Ellison
      • More on Forster
    • September 9th: The Time Machine
  • LBST 2213-110: Science, Technology, and Society
    • August 22nd: Science and Technology from a Humanistic Perspective
    • August 24th: Science and Technology, a Humanistic Approach
    • August 29th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 2
    • August 31st: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 3 and 4
    • December 5th: Video Games and Violence, a more nuanced view
    • November 14th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 27-end
    • November 16th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Preface-Ch. 8
    • November 21st: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ch. 9-Ch. 16
    • November 28th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ch. 17-Ch. 24
    • November 30th: Violence in Video Games
    • November 7th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes Ch. 1-17
    • November 9th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes, Ch. 18-26
    • October 12th: Lies Economics Tells
    • October 17th: Brief Histories of Medicine, Salerno, and Galen
    • October 19th: Politicizing Science and Medicine
    • October 24th: COVID-19 Facial Covering Rhetoric
    • October 26th: Wells, H. G. Time Machine. Ch. 1-5
    • October 31st: Wells, H. G. The Time Machine Ch. 6-The End
    • October 3rd: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 12th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 19th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Prefaces and Ch. 1
    • September 26th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 2
    • September 28th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 5 and 6
    • September 7th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 5 and 6
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology (Spring 2021)
    • April 13th: Virtually ‘Real’ Environments
    • April 20th: Rhetoric/Composition Defines New Media
    • April 27th: Sub/Cultural Politics, Hegemony, and Agency
    • April 6th: Capitalist Realism
    • February 16: Misunderstanding the Internet
    • February 23rd: Our Public Sphere and the Media
    • February 2nd: Introduction to Cultural Studies
    • January 26th: Introduction to New Media
    • Major Assignments for New Media (Spring 2021)
    • March 16th: Identity Politics
    • March 23rd: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality
    • March 2nd: Foundational Thinkers in Cultural Studies
    • March 30th: Hyperreality
    • March 9th: Globalization & Postmodernism
    • May 4th: Wrapping Up The Semester
      • Jodi Dean “The The Illusion of Democracy” & “Communicative Capitalism”
      • Social Construction of Sexuality
  • Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020)
    • Assignments for Science Fiction in American Culture
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • June 10th: Interstellar and Exploration themes
    • June 11th: Bicentennial Man
    • June 15th: I’m Only Human…Or am I?
    • June 16th: Wall-E and Environment
    • June 17th: Wall-E (2008) and Technology
    • June 18th: Interactivity in Video Games
    • June 1st: Firefly (2002) and Myth
    • June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”
    • June 3rd: “New Rose Hotel”
    • June 4th: “Burning Chrome”
    • June 8th: Conformity and Monotony
    • June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty
    • May 18th: Introduction to Class
    • May 19th: American Culture, an Introduction
    • May 20th: The Matrix
    • May 21st: Gender and Science Fiction
    • May 25th: Goals for I, Robot
    • May 26th: Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
    • May 27th: Hackers and Slackers
    • May 30th: Inception
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • A Practical Editing Situation
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Fordism/Taylorism
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • Isaac Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance”
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • Marxist Theory (cultural analysis)
    • Oral Presentations
    • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • Our Public Sphere
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • Punctuation Refresher
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire
  • Video Games & American Culture
    • April 14th: Phallocentrism
    • April 21st: Video Games and Neoliberalism
    • April 7th: Video Games and Conquest
    • Assignments for Video Games & American Culture
    • February 10th: Aesthetics and Culture
    • February 17th: Narrative and Catharsis
    • February 24th: Serious Games
    • February 3rd: More History of Video Games
    • January 13th: Introduction to the course
    • January 20th: Introduction to Video Game Studies
    • January 27th: Games & Culture
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
    • March 24th: Realism, Interpretation(s), and Meaning Making
    • March 31st: Feminist Perspectives and Politics
    • March 3rd: Risky Business?

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 255F
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
LBST 2213-110: Science, Technology, and Society » October 17th: Brief Histories of Medicine, Salerno, and Galen

October 17th: Brief Histories of Medicine, Salerno, and Galen

Overview for This Week

  • This page has important notes for the Canvas readings for today (10/17)
  • We start our COVID-19 section next “class” (10/19), and those readings (and a video) are also on Canvas
  • Even if you aren’t interested in medieval medicine, you might still be interested in Salerno and the rest of the Amalfi Coast. If so, you’re in luck that I’m leading a study abroad to Salerno, Italy, Summer 2023
    • Intercultural Communication on the Amalfi Coast (6 credits)
      • May 27, 2023-June 24, 2023
    • Summer Study Abroad Fair (this program) is Tuesday, Nov. 15th
      • Tuesday, November 15
      • Student Union Lobby & Norm’s Gameroom
      • Amalfi Coast Study Abroad 1
      • Amalfi Coast Study Abroad 2

Coming Up

  • On Monday (10/24), we’ll discuss COVID-19 rhetoric
  • Next Wednesday (10/26), we start our Science Fiction section of the class
    • H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine (1895) is available online
  • By the way, tomorrow (10/18) is the 26th anniversary of the release of the film Swingers (1996)
    • I highly recommend it–fun for the whole family!

Notes on Today’s Readings

Below are some key points for today’s readings. Our webpage today, Monday, and next Wednesday will all center on medicine and medical contexts–from medieval Europe to cutting-edge stuff during a pandemic.

Encyclopedia Britannica’s entry The University of Salerno

  • “University of Salerno”
  • Probably the first University in Europe with some historians claiming the founding date to be 802 CE
  • The University of Bologna, also in Italy, is another school considered the oldest with a consensus that it was founded in 1088 AD, so it is the oldest consecutively run University in the world
  • An extremely important medieval school recognized for its commitment to advancing knowledge of medicine
  • In 1221, the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II decreed that only doctors who studied at the University could practice medicine
  • As new schools, especially post-Renaissance, were founded, the University of Salerno gradually lost its prominence but didn’t close until 1811–that’s a thousand year run!
  • There’s a museum to the school in Salerno today (opens in Google Maps)…hopefully they’ll start having tours again in Summer 2023
Schola Medica Salernitana
A miniature depicting the Schola Medica Salernitana from a copy of Avicenna‘s Canons

Hellenistic and Roman Medicine

  • Hellenistic and Roman Medicine (read to “The spread of new learning”)
    • Anytime you hear “Hellen-istic or –ism, it means Greek and usually ancient Greece
    • Panhellenic is a term used for university Greek Life
  • Aristotle laid the foundations for Western medicine
  • After Alexander the Great conquered the known world, Alexandria, Egypt, became an intellectual center with The Great Library–a rather important Wonder of the World for the videogame Civilization (1991)
  • Hippocrates (circa 460 – circa 370 BCE) is considered the “Father of Medicine,” and physicians to this day take the Hippocratic Oath to pledge to be ethical practitioners on medicine
    • He had a funny idea about humors in the body lasted for centuries as medical “truth”
    • These humors–blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm–were thought to govern all bodily functions and even emotions.
  • Asclepiades of Bithynia, a Greek who moved to Rome to practice medicine circa 100 BCE, used an assumption of atomic theory to restore balance to a sick body–differing from Hippocrates and Galen
    • Asclepiades actually prescribed “massage, poultices [topical herbal remedies for sores], occasional tonics, fresh air, and corrective diet” as remedies for ailments
  • The flourishing of medical knowledge of Ancient Greece and Rome was impressive and somewhat lost after the Fall of Rome
    • For instance, Soranus of Ephesus is credited with developing a technique to turn a baby in a breech position (feet first) during birth to reduce the chance of death…this technique was lost until the 16th Century!
  • After the Fall of Rome, seeking knowledge was discouraged but continued with European clergy and Arabic scholars
    • Many physicians in the Arab world (Muslim, Christian, and Jewish) read translated Greek texts and advanced medicine
    • These Arab scholars eventually established chemistry as a science (circa 800 CE), which greatly helped in preparing medicines
  • In Medieval Times, “Salerno drew scholars from near and far.”
    • It was a center of knowledge, bringing together techniques from around the known world and spurred new schools from its model

Article on the Philosopher/Physician Galen

  • “Galen, Greek physician”
  • Born 129 CE in what is modern-day Turkey, he studied Greek medicine
  • After studying at Alexandria, he moved to Rome and was the physician to emperors
    • He healed many wealthy patients, which was good for his reputation
  • Gave public demonstrations of medicine
  • Advocated dissection but had to use animals
  • Used his rhetorical skills to advance his ideas in public debates
  • In that time and up until around 1900, rhetorical knowledge was a key component of all knowledge making

“Schola Medica Salernitana”

  • Marcum, James. “Schola Medica Salernitana and Medieval Medical Philosophy.” Hektoen International, vol. 4, no. 3. Summer 2012.
  • Schola Medica Salernitana (2-min video that should provoke some discussion)
  • The legends of its founding, while perhaps dubious, underscore the diversity of cultures that informed the University’s practice
    • One legend has “four founders—Pontus, a Greek; Salernus, a Latin; Adela, an Arab; and Elinus, a Jew—each representing the various cultural influences on the school”
    • Knowledge-seeking led to interactions among different peoples
  • Another legend claims “Parmenides, a pre-Socratic philosopher who, in 540 BCE, founded a medical school…located on the coast eighty kilometers [about 50 miles] south of Salerno.”
  • That distance would put it near San Nicola a Mare on the Amalfi Coast:
Technically, this is the Cilento coast, but it’s a continuation of the magnificence of the Amalfi Coast.
  • “The school flourished from the tenth to twelfth centuries, reaching in the twelfth century its apogee of influence on medicine throughout the known world.”
  • “Robert, the son of William the Conqueror (ca. 1028–1087 CE)….came to Salerno from the Crusades to have a fistula attended.”
  • Crusaders went through Italy to and from attempts to regain the “holy land,” bringing knowledge and experience with them

Women at Schola Medica Salernitana

Marcum briefly mentions that women were admitted to the school, but another article (not required reading) provides more details, and I’ll put that below:
Enrico de Divitiis, Paolo Cappabianca, Oreste de Divitiis. “The ‘Schola Medica Salernitana’:
The Forerunner of the Modern University Medical Schools.” Neurosurgery 55:722-745, 2004.
DOI: 10.1227/01.NEU.0000139458.36781.31

Marcum’s Article

  • p. 723: “With the fall of the Roman influence, an entire system of knowledge, along with its libraries and fundamental scientific concepts, was abolished.”
    • p. 723: During the Middle Ages, people had a devotion to “a belief in superstition and magic”. When doctors couldn’t provide scientific answers for ailments, people distrusted them, which “led to universal* reaction against any scientific and rational approach to disease, driving the people away from science and reason.”
    • “universal” seems bombastic…perhaps a “major” reaction or “prevailing” reaction seems more likely.
  • p. 731: “[Women] were considered valuable practicing physicians and surgeons, whereas elsewhere, women held only a marginal social position and, in the medical field, were allowed only to be midwives, with no involvement in any other type of medical procedure.”
  • p. 731: “Salerno was the only medical school in Europe that opened its doors to women. As we can see, these women were not midwives but rather actual physicians who practiced their profession without any sexual discrimination. The presence of women was not sporadic or episodic but rather an essential part of the Salerno medical system.”

Next Class

We’re going from old (medieval) medicine to contemporary medical knowledge. We’ll cover politicization of vaccines and the rhetoric around facial coverings during the early days of the pandemic. Take the time to do the COVID-19 readings on Canvas for the next two classes (10/19 & 10/24). Then, we start our science fiction section next Wednesday (10/26).

Don’t forget to do the Weekly Canvas post before 11:00pm on Friday, 10/21.

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