The Philosophy of Style

Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903)

“The Philosophy of Style,” explored a growing trend of formalist approaches to writing. Highly focused on the proper placement and ordering of the parts of an English sentence, [Spencer] created a guide for effective composition. Spencer’s aim was to free prose writing from as much "friction and inertia" as possible, so that the reader would not be slowed by strenuous deliberations concerning the proper context and meaning of a sentence. [Wikipedia]

Genre(s): Writing & Linguistics

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 Causes of Force in Language which Depend Upon Economy of the Mental Energies Sec. 1 Gary Gilberd
00:35:49
Play 02 Causes of Force in Language which Depend Upon Economy of the Mental Energies Sec. 2 Gary Gilberd
00:34:04
Play 03 Causes of Force in Language which Depend Upon Economy of the Mental Sensibilities Gary Gilberd
00:17:02