The Meaning of Action is now clarified not by immersion in its essence, its telos, its own character, but quite the contrary by applying a discrepant, inadequate, alien yardstick, for which Kenneth Burke coins the apt formula "Perspective by Incongruity." [...]
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yardstick noun 1 Messstab (Mask.) Maßstab (Mask.) (archaic) 2 (figurative) (standard) Maßstab (Mask.)