Ars Rhetorica Et Cogitationes Publicae, or, the Competition and Evolution of Ideas in the Public Sphere

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to develop a view of the process by which the individual becomes persuaded to accept an idea in the process of reasoning in the public sphere as part of the competition between ideas. It makes use of a model of the human mind, psychology and behaviour developed by Markey-Towler (2015) to uncover the factors effecting the fundamental exchange from whence emerges the competition between ideas at the level of the population. The value of the view thus obtained of the competition between ideas as a tool for understanding why certain ideas do or do not succeed and designing ideas so as for them to succeed in the public sphere is assessed.