- Department of Communication
Texas A&M University
4234 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-4234
Nathan Crick
Texas A&M University, Communication, Faculty Member
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Social Movements, Rhetoric, Pragmatism, Democratic Theory, Communication Studies, Walter Benjamin, and 29 moreMedia and Democracy, Aesthetics and Politics, Propaganda, William James, Classical rhetoric, John Dewey, Charles S. Peirce, Marshall McLuhan, U.S. Progressive Era, Hannah Arendt, Communication, Aesthetics, Creative Writing, Human Evolution, Jurgen Habermas, Composition and Rhetoric, Art and Science, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Rhetoric of Science, Rhetorical Criticism, American Pragmatism, Rhetoric and Public Culture, Rhetoric and Social Theory, Rhetorical Theory, Social Movement, Plato, Democracy, American Philosophy, and Sophists edit
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A rhetorician at Texas A&M University, I am interested in the complex intersections between art, science, rhetoric, a... moreA rhetorician at Texas A&M University, I am interested in the complex intersections between art, science, rhetoric, and democracy, particularly as theorized and practiced by the Greek Sophists and the American Pragmatists. I believe it is true that which John Dewey stated after long reflection: "Creation, not acquisition, is the measure of a nation's rank; it is the only road to an enduring place in the admiring memory of mankind." Rhetoric is an act of creation deployed to reveal better versions of ourselves in the midst of uncertainty, crisis, and possibility. edit
During the rise of fascism in the early twentieth century, American philosopher and educational reformer John Dewey argued that the greatest threat to democracy was not a political regime or even an aggressive foreign power but rather a... more
During the rise of fascism in the early twentieth century, American philosopher and educational reformer John Dewey argued that the greatest threat to democracy was not a political regime or even an aggressive foreign power but rather a set of dispositions or attitudes. Though not fascist in and of themselves, these habits of thought—rugged individualism and ideological nationalism—lay the foundation for fascism. In this study, Nathan Crick uses Dewey’s social thought and philosophy of education to provide insight into and resources for transforming our present-day politics.
Through a close reading of Dewey’s political writings and educational theory, Crick elaborates Dewey’s vision of democratic social life and the education required for its foundation. He shows that for Dewey, communication is essential to cultivating sympathy, intelligence, and creativity—habits of thought that form the core of democratic culture. Crick then lays out a broad curriculum of logic, aesthetics, and rhetoric for inculcating these habits in the classroom, arguing that if we are to meet the challenge of fascism, we must teach these new arts as if our civilization depends on it—because in our new age of politics, it does.
Comprehensive and pragmatic, this book presents an experimental model of education that can be applied across the humanities curriculum. It will be of interest to teachers of writing, composition, and rhetoric as well as scholars and students of communication studies, pedagogy, and political theory.
Through a close reading of Dewey’s political writings and educational theory, Crick elaborates Dewey’s vision of democratic social life and the education required for its foundation. He shows that for Dewey, communication is essential to cultivating sympathy, intelligence, and creativity—habits of thought that form the core of democratic culture. Crick then lays out a broad curriculum of logic, aesthetics, and rhetoric for inculcating these habits in the classroom, arguing that if we are to meet the challenge of fascism, we must teach these new arts as if our civilization depends on it—because in our new age of politics, it does.
Comprehensive and pragmatic, this book presents an experimental model of education that can be applied across the humanities curriculum. It will be of interest to teachers of writing, composition, and rhetoric as well as scholars and students of communication studies, pedagogy, and political theory.
Research Interests:
Crick examines the Transcendentalist understanding of how power is constituted in both the self and in society, conceptualizing the relationships among technology, nature, language, and identity; critiquing the ethical responsibilities to... more
Crick examines the Transcendentalist understanding of how power is constituted in both the self and in society, conceptualizing the relationships among technology, nature, language, and identity; critiquing the ethical responsibilities to oneself, the other, and the state; and defining and ultimately praising the unique role that art, action, persuasion, and ideas have in the transformation of the structure of political culture over historical time.
What is offered here is not a comprehensive genealogy of ideas, a series of individual biographies, or an effort at conceptual generalization, but instead an exercise in narrative rhetorical theory and criticism that interprets some of the major specific writings and speeches by men and women associated with the Transcendentalist movement—Sampson Reed, Amos Bronson Alcott, Orestes Brownson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau, and Frederick Douglass—by placing them within a specific political and social history. Rather than attempting to provide comprehensive overviews of the life and work of each of these individuals, this volume presents close readings of individual texts that bring to life their rhetorical character in reaction to particular exigencies while addressing audiences of a unique moment. This rhetoric of Transcendentalism provides insights into the “keys of power”—that is, the means of persuasion for our modern era—that remain vital tools for individuals seeking to reconcile power and virtue in their struggle to make manifest a higher ideal in the world.
What is offered here is not a comprehensive genealogy of ideas, a series of individual biographies, or an effort at conceptual generalization, but instead an exercise in narrative rhetorical theory and criticism that interprets some of the major specific writings and speeches by men and women associated with the Transcendentalist movement—Sampson Reed, Amos Bronson Alcott, Orestes Brownson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau, and Frederick Douglass—by placing them within a specific political and social history. Rather than attempting to provide comprehensive overviews of the life and work of each of these individuals, this volume presents close readings of individual texts that bring to life their rhetorical character in reaction to particular exigencies while addressing audiences of a unique moment. This rhetoric of Transcendentalism provides insights into the “keys of power”—that is, the means of persuasion for our modern era—that remain vital tools for individuals seeking to reconcile power and virtue in their struggle to make manifest a higher ideal in the world.
Research Interests:
Rhetorical Public Speaking: Civic Engagement in the Digital Age, 3rd Edition offers students an innovative approach to public speaking by employing the rhetorical canon as a means of constructing artful speech in a multi-mediated... more
Rhetorical Public Speaking: Civic Engagement in the Digital Age, 3rd Edition offers students an innovative approach to public speaking by employing the rhetorical canon as a means of constructing artful speech in a multi-mediated environment. It provides a foundation to guide students in understanding, constructing, and delivering messages that address matters of public concern. Now in its third edition, the text features contemporary as well as historical examples to highlight key concepts and show how rhetoric works in practice. Each chapter includes speech excerpts, summaries, and exercises for review and retention. Students of public speaking are encouraged to employ their new skills as engaged citizens of society.
Research Interests:
In Rhetoric and Power, Nathan Crick dramatizes the history of rhetoric by explaining its origin and development in classical Greece beginning the oral displays of Homeric eloquence in a time of kings, following its ascent to power during... more
In Rhetoric and Power, Nathan Crick dramatizes the history of rhetoric by explaining its origin and development in classical Greece beginning the oral displays of Homeric eloquence in a time of kings, following its ascent to power during the age of Pericles and the Sophists, and ending with its transformation into a rational discipline with Aristotle in a time of literacy and empire. Crick advances the thesis that rhetoric is primarily a medium and artistry of power, but that the relationship between rhetoric and power at any point in time is a product of historical conditions, not the least of which is the development and availability of communication media.
Investigating major works by Homer, Heraclitus, Aeschylus, Protagoras, Gorgias, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato, Isocrates, and Aristotle, Rhetoric and Power tells the story of the rise and fall of classical Greece while simultaneously developing rhetorical theory from the close criticism of particular texts. As a form of rhetorical criticism, this volume offers challenging new readings to canonical works such as Aeschylus's Persians, Gorgias's Helen, Aristophanes's Birds, and Isocrates's Nicocles by reading them as reflections of the political culture of their time.
Through this theoretical inquiry, Crick uses these criticisms to articulate and define a plurality of rhetorical genres and concepts, such as heroic eloquence, tragicomedy, representative publicity, ideology, and the public sphere, and their relationships to different structures and ethics of power, such as monarchy, democracy, aristocracy, and empire. Rhetoric and Power thus provides a foundation for rhetorical history, criticism, and theory that draws on contemporary research to prove again the incredible richness of the classical tradition for contemporary rhetorical scholarship and practice.
Investigating major works by Homer, Heraclitus, Aeschylus, Protagoras, Gorgias, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Plato, Isocrates, and Aristotle, Rhetoric and Power tells the story of the rise and fall of classical Greece while simultaneously developing rhetorical theory from the close criticism of particular texts. As a form of rhetorical criticism, this volume offers challenging new readings to canonical works such as Aeschylus's Persians, Gorgias's Helen, Aristophanes's Birds, and Isocrates's Nicocles by reading them as reflections of the political culture of their time.
Through this theoretical inquiry, Crick uses these criticisms to articulate and define a plurality of rhetorical genres and concepts, such as heroic eloquence, tragicomedy, representative publicity, ideology, and the public sphere, and their relationships to different structures and ethics of power, such as monarchy, democracy, aristocracy, and empire. Rhetoric and Power thus provides a foundation for rhetorical history, criticism, and theory that draws on contemporary research to prove again the incredible richness of the classical tradition for contemporary rhetorical scholarship and practice.
Research Interests:
Rhetoric is the radical expression of a radical faith. Dewey calls this faith “democratic,” but democracy is merely its political manifestation. The faith that makes both rhetoric and democracy radical is faith in the constitutive and... more
Rhetoric is the radical expression of a radical faith. Dewey calls this faith “democratic,” but democracy is merely its political manifestation. The faith that makes both rhetoric and democracy radical is faith in the constitutive and communicative power of art unfettered. A truly radical art eschews the easy radicalisms of mass culture that wallow in easy sensation or cheap dogma in order to inoculate a population against the subtleties of life. Such radicalisms, at their best, promise much but deliver little, and at their worst destroy that which long effort has struggled to create and preserve. Radical art, like a radical society, is radical not because it seeks extremes but because it dares to place the burden of hope for the future on the shoulders of an art which is sweeping, visionary, rapturous, disciplined, intelligent, and open. Democracy is radical when it commits itself to the possibility that life can achieve the status of art. Rhetoric is radical when it harnesses the power of the arts to shatter that which shuns and constrains and liberate that which desires to build and grow.
Driving both projects is the always fragile faith in the intrinsic worth and potential of shared human experience. Sightless dogmatism, cynical irony, and apathetic ennui come easy in this and any age, for they offer escape from the demands of wisdom, judgment, and beauty. Nothing in the history of philosophy has shown philosophers, as a class, to be any less susceptible to these manifestations of the will to nothingness. Whatever else Dewey contributed to the intellectual traditional of humanism, his greatest achievement was to leave behind a corpus of writing that embodies the virtue of hope. It is, and has always been, the task of the greatest rhetoric to translate idealistic hope into social praxis, to turn visionary word into practical deed. Dewey has provided the hope. It falls to those now living and struggling in a world still wrought by strife, insecurity, and fear to sculpt discourses that dare to lift us toward unknown possibilities in the working faith that human beings have within themselves the capacities to prevail.
Driving both projects is the always fragile faith in the intrinsic worth and potential of shared human experience. Sightless dogmatism, cynical irony, and apathetic ennui come easy in this and any age, for they offer escape from the demands of wisdom, judgment, and beauty. Nothing in the history of philosophy has shown philosophers, as a class, to be any less susceptible to these manifestations of the will to nothingness. Whatever else Dewey contributed to the intellectual traditional of humanism, his greatest achievement was to leave behind a corpus of writing that embodies the virtue of hope. It is, and has always been, the task of the greatest rhetoric to translate idealistic hope into social praxis, to turn visionary word into practical deed. Dewey has provided the hope. It falls to those now living and struggling in a world still wrought by strife, insecurity, and fear to sculpt discourses that dare to lift us toward unknown possibilities in the working faith that human beings have within themselves the capacities to prevail.
Research Interests:
John Dewey once wrote: “Of all affairs, communication is the most wonderful.” For him communication is the highest of the “arts of life,” for it is in communication that society is born and nurtured. It is by communication that we... more
John Dewey once wrote: “Of all affairs, communication is the most wonderful.” For him communication is the highest of the “arts of life,” for it is in communication that society is born and nurtured. It is by communication that we discover the possibilities of nature. And it is through communication that we make our shared experience meaningful. It is no wonder, then, that Dewey would conclude The Public and Its Problems with this provocative statement: Democracy “will have its consummation when free social inquiry is indissolubly wedded to the art of full and moving communication.”
Dewey, however, does not adequately explain what he understands by “the art of full and moving communication” and never tells us how “communication” functions in the varied contexts of practical life. Despite, then, his obvious affection for communication, he leaves many questions about it unanswered. For instance, what makes communication possible? In what kind of situations is communication called for and why? How does an inchoate feeling or idea find concrete embodiment in language? What are the connections among language, communication, thought, feeling, and action? Most importantly, what is the process by which one employs the art of communication to influence the beliefs and behaviors of others?
This dissertation addresses these questions by approaching Dewey’s thinking on communication from a distinctly rhetorical perspective. Even though Dewey almost never mentions “rhetoric” in his entire corpus, I argue that it is precisely the absence of the term from his writings that makes a rhetorical reading of his work all the more imperative. Such a reading permits us to understand the practical importance of the “art of communication” in the larger context of his social thought. If, then, the problem with Dewey’s writing on communication is that it often drifts into abstractions, one remedy is take those abstractions and place them into concrete situations, where communication is required to transform some part of the environment through transaction with human thought and action. Because this kind of activity has been the specific domain of rhetoric since the time of the sophists, it is only appropriate to read Dewey’s work through that tradition.
In effect, the goal of this dissertation is to explicate Dewey’s theory of communication in the terms of a rhetorical theory. But insofar as his thought went through three distinct “periods” in his lifetime, beginning with his Idealistic period in 1880, moving into his Experimental period in 1903, and culminating in his Naturalistic period in 1925, Dewey can be said to have had three implicit rhetorical theories. To articulate and explain each of these theories, I trace Dewey’s theoretical development through time and construct, through published works, private correspondence, and biographical material. I show that the first theory envisioned rhetoric as a form of eros that helps us grow towards Absolute self consciousness. The second theory views rhetoric as a form of critical inquiry whose goal is the development of phronēsis, or practical wisdom. The third theory treats rhetoric as a productive technē, or a naturalistic form of art that has the power to transform experience, nature, and society through its transactional character.
By tracing Dewey’s theoretical development and explicating three implicit theories of rhetoric in his writings, this dissertation not only provides a unique perspective on Dewey’s changing views on language, ontology, and social practice, but also demonstrates how each theory can still be effectively used to interpret and guide the art of rhetoric. This kind of work enables us to grasp different facets of this diverse and vibrant art. At the same time, it shows how Dewey’s work remains an important resource for those who wish to promote and sustain a democratic way of life by educating citizens in the art of full and moving communication.
Dewey, however, does not adequately explain what he understands by “the art of full and moving communication” and never tells us how “communication” functions in the varied contexts of practical life. Despite, then, his obvious affection for communication, he leaves many questions about it unanswered. For instance, what makes communication possible? In what kind of situations is communication called for and why? How does an inchoate feeling or idea find concrete embodiment in language? What are the connections among language, communication, thought, feeling, and action? Most importantly, what is the process by which one employs the art of communication to influence the beliefs and behaviors of others?
This dissertation addresses these questions by approaching Dewey’s thinking on communication from a distinctly rhetorical perspective. Even though Dewey almost never mentions “rhetoric” in his entire corpus, I argue that it is precisely the absence of the term from his writings that makes a rhetorical reading of his work all the more imperative. Such a reading permits us to understand the practical importance of the “art of communication” in the larger context of his social thought. If, then, the problem with Dewey’s writing on communication is that it often drifts into abstractions, one remedy is take those abstractions and place them into concrete situations, where communication is required to transform some part of the environment through transaction with human thought and action. Because this kind of activity has been the specific domain of rhetoric since the time of the sophists, it is only appropriate to read Dewey’s work through that tradition.
In effect, the goal of this dissertation is to explicate Dewey’s theory of communication in the terms of a rhetorical theory. But insofar as his thought went through three distinct “periods” in his lifetime, beginning with his Idealistic period in 1880, moving into his Experimental period in 1903, and culminating in his Naturalistic period in 1925, Dewey can be said to have had three implicit rhetorical theories. To articulate and explain each of these theories, I trace Dewey’s theoretical development through time and construct, through published works, private correspondence, and biographical material. I show that the first theory envisioned rhetoric as a form of eros that helps us grow towards Absolute self consciousness. The second theory views rhetoric as a form of critical inquiry whose goal is the development of phronēsis, or practical wisdom. The third theory treats rhetoric as a productive technē, or a naturalistic form of art that has the power to transform experience, nature, and society through its transactional character.
By tracing Dewey’s theoretical development and explicating three implicit theories of rhetoric in his writings, this dissertation not only provides a unique perspective on Dewey’s changing views on language, ontology, and social practice, but also demonstrates how each theory can still be effectively used to interpret and guide the art of rhetoric. This kind of work enables us to grasp different facets of this diverse and vibrant art. At the same time, it shows how Dewey’s work remains an important resource for those who wish to promote and sustain a democratic way of life by educating citizens in the art of full and moving communication.
Research Interests:
The Anabasis is a rich text because it complicates the simple dichotomy between force and persuasion. Xenophon not only shows himself fully prepared to use force to attain his aims when convenient, and often uses rhetoric to justify past... more
The Anabasis is a rich text because it complicates the simple dichotomy between force and persuasion. Xenophon not only shows himself fully prepared to use force to attain his aims when convenient, and often uses rhetoric to justify past acts of violence or to threaten future violence if his expectations of “justice” are not met. Violence, in fact, is present in almost everything Xenophon does or says in some way, although often implicit and subtle. What I wish to explore in this essay, therefore, is how rhetoric and power relate to one another in different rhetorical situations as narrated by Xenophon in the Anabasis. Through this exercise I hope to both reveal the subtlety of Xenophon’s rhetoric and to clarify the overall relationship among rhetoric, violence, and power in rhetorical performance as it continues in the present.
Research Interests:
In an epoch marked by the threat of global warming, the conflicts between science and religion are no longer simply matters that concern only intellectual elites and armchair philosophers; they are in many ways matters that will determine... more
In an epoch marked by the threat of global warming, the
conflicts between science and religion are no longer simply matters
that concern only intellectual elites and armchair philosophers; they
are in many ways matters that will determine the degree to which
we can meet the challenges of our times. John H. Evans’s Morals Not
Knowledge represents an important provocation for those committed
not only to using scientific method as a resource for making moral
judgments but also to creating political alliances with religious constituencies. In this important work, Evans argues that most conflicts
between science and religion do not concern a clash between two
contradictory ways of knowing, but rather a clash over our moral
responsibilities and ultimate values. In my response to his work, I
suggest that integrating both John Dewey’s pragmatic understanding
of the moral situation and Kenneth Burke’s rhetorical interpretation
of motives helps bolster Evans’s cause and provides support for a political movement that aims to bridge the divide between science and
religion in the epoch of the Anthropocene.
conflicts between science and religion are no longer simply matters
that concern only intellectual elites and armchair philosophers; they
are in many ways matters that will determine the degree to which
we can meet the challenges of our times. John H. Evans’s Morals Not
Knowledge represents an important provocation for those committed
not only to using scientific method as a resource for making moral
judgments but also to creating political alliances with religious constituencies. In this important work, Evans argues that most conflicts
between science and religion do not concern a clash between two
contradictory ways of knowing, but rather a clash over our moral
responsibilities and ultimate values. In my response to his work, I
suggest that integrating both John Dewey’s pragmatic understanding
of the moral situation and Kenneth Burke’s rhetorical interpretation
of motives helps bolster Evans’s cause and provides support for a political movement that aims to bridge the divide between science and
religion in the epoch of the Anthropocene.
Research Interests:
Francesco Petrarch was a pioneering figure not only in the study of the humanities, but also in the defense of the humanities. A prolific writer and avid reader of the classics, particularly of the historians, rhetoricians, and poets,... more
Francesco Petrarch was a pioneering figure not only in the study of
the humanities, but also in the defense of the humanities. A prolific
writer and avid reader of the classics, particularly of the historians, rhetoricians, and poets, Petrarch cleared the way for humanistic
studies in an age dominated by rigid scholasticism. Not surprisingly, then, Petrarch also had to defend himself against attacks from establishment elites who condemned the new studies as useless distractions from the pursuit of knowledge, by which they meant the study of syllogisms. I argue in this essay that Petrarch’s invectives against his detractors offer a unique and communicative defense of the humanities that does not rely on the traditional recourse to civic humanism, a tradition that arose only subsequent to Petrarch. In his understanding of humanism, the value of humanistic studies is found in their capacity to produce a combination of humility and love—humility by
expanding the circumference of our experience and exposing the limitations of our knowledge, and love by the capacity to create unity out of division. Furthermore, Petrarch defines the enduring opponent of the humanities as the scholastic ignoramus, a character that endures today.
the humanities, but also in the defense of the humanities. A prolific
writer and avid reader of the classics, particularly of the historians, rhetoricians, and poets, Petrarch cleared the way for humanistic
studies in an age dominated by rigid scholasticism. Not surprisingly, then, Petrarch also had to defend himself against attacks from establishment elites who condemned the new studies as useless distractions from the pursuit of knowledge, by which they meant the study of syllogisms. I argue in this essay that Petrarch’s invectives against his detractors offer a unique and communicative defense of the humanities that does not rely on the traditional recourse to civic humanism, a tradition that arose only subsequent to Petrarch. In his understanding of humanism, the value of humanistic studies is found in their capacity to produce a combination of humility and love—humility by
expanding the circumference of our experience and exposing the limitations of our knowledge, and love by the capacity to create unity out of division. Furthermore, Petrarch defines the enduring opponent of the humanities as the scholastic ignoramus, a character that endures today.
Research Interests:
The next decade will be one of the most decisive periods in human history. We currently face the reality of a coming climate catastrophe brought about by centuries of industrial resource extraction from the planet and the accompanying... more
The next decade will be one of the most decisive periods in human history. We currently face the reality of a coming climate catastrophe brought about by centuries of industrial resource extraction from the planet and the accompanying mass exploitation of its human population, and as a result “we will soon find ourselves confronted by movements of disadvantaged people across borders that dwarfed those of previous eras” (Stanley 192). According to Jason Stanley, these conditions make a situation ripe for the rise of fascism: “Traumatized, impoverished, and in need of aid, refugees, including legal immigrants, will be recast to fit racist stereotypes by leaders and movements committed to maintaining hierarchical group privilege and using fascist politics” (192). The fact that climate change now threatens everyone’s existence simultaneously and demands such thorough reconstruction of virtually every aspect of social life makes it predictable that fascism would spring up across the face of the earth in different guises to resist these imperatives. Rhetoricians today face no more pressing challenge than to diagnose and counter this global movement as part of a larger effort to stave off the barbarism that fascism eagerly unleashes on history. This review essay contributes to this effort by reading four popular books that purport to confront this challenge head-on without reducing fascism to a caricature that gratifies its critics while casting the real issues into shadow.
Research Interests:
One of the most outstanding characteristics of the digital age is the ubiquity of the image. Images are not only easily captured, but easily manipulated and distributed for rhetorical effect, as we see in social networking, advertising,... more
One of the most outstanding characteristics of the digital age is the ubiquity of the image. Images are not only easily captured, but easily manipulated and distributed for rhetorical effect, as we see in social networking, advertising, political campaigning, or coordinated propaganda. Making classical rhetoric relevant to the digital age thus requires specific attention to its treatment of the image. And this is precisely what we find in one of the earliest extant rhetorical texts of the Sophists—Gorgias’s Encomium of Helen. Although most well-known for its glorification of the power of logos in its capacity as a dynastes megas, it is significant that Gorgias in the Helen gives equal time to eros as a force capable of moving men and women to action men. Notably, eros is not conceptualized as an emotional impulse that arises in the heart, but rather a purely physiological reaction to the sensation of sight. The counterpart of eros is thus not hatred but fear, representing a compulsion to flee. And the source of both love and fear are images—whether they be of painted statues or clashing armor of bronze and iron, respectively. This chapter explicates a sophistical understanding of visual rhetoric and its relationship to logos, a relationship that I believe has become even stronger in the digital age to the degree that the reign of logos as a dynastes megas is now built upon the foundation of the visual image.
Research Interests:
Reading Paulo Freire’ s Pedagogy of the oppressed, one might easily conclude that rhetoric has no place in a classroom so thoroughly imbued with the ethics of dialogue. However, this essay suggests that rhetoric plays a productive and in... more
Reading Paulo Freire’ s Pedagogy of the oppressed, one might easily conclude that rhetoric has no place in a classroom so thoroughly imbued with the ethics of dialogue. However, this essay suggests that rhetoric plays a productive and in fact necessary role in Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed. Drawing from the sophistical techniques of imitatio and dissoilogoi, I suggest that true liberation from a dominated consciousness goes through rather than around the methods of rhetorical persuasion, methods that not only develop rhetorical skills in students but that also encourage rhetorical performance on the part of the educators. Dialogue remains central to this pedagogy but becomes enriched by its natural counterpart, rhetoric, so that the aim is not only cognitive liberation but the accrual of practical power.
Research Interests:
In order to highlight the genuinely radical nature of John Dewey’s educational and democratic vision this essay articulates a vision of contemporary rhetorical education that is grounded in a pragmatic rereading of Friedrich Nietzsche’s... more
In order to highlight the genuinely radical nature of John Dewey’s educational and democratic vision this essay articulates a vision of contemporary rhetorical education that is grounded in a pragmatic rereading of Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the “will to power.” Drawing from Dewey’s treatment of the will to power in Human Nature and Conduct, I argue that rhetorical pedagogy seeks to arouse, channel, and finally compose the impulses of students through the activity of intelligence in such a way that reflects and advocates for students’ interests within a democratic
ethic of advocacy, criticism, and deliberation.
ethic of advocacy, criticism, and deliberation.
Research Interests:
Peirce famously defined the process of thinking as what a person is " 'saying to himself,' that is, is saying to that other self that is just coming into life in the flow of time. " For Peirce, this meant the essence of thinking is... more
Peirce famously defined the process of thinking as what a person is " 'saying to himself,' that is, is saying to that other self that is just coming into life in the flow of time. " For Peirce, this meant the essence of thinking is dialogue. This essay proposes a conception of dialogue grounded in Peirce's normative ideal of inquiry that challenges contemporary thinking about dialogue yet supports the same moral and ethical aims. Using a scene from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice that Peirce used as an exemplar of dialogue, we propose a conception that begins in doubt and passes through phases of reasoning and ethical and esthetic judgment before coming to a resolution which expands horizons of thought, emotion, and action.
Research Interests:
Review Essay: The Evolving Citizen: American Youth and the Changing Norms of Democratic Engagement, by Jay P. Childers, After the Public Turn: Composition, Counterpublics, and the Citizen Bricoleur, by Frank Farmer, Prophets, Gurus,... more
Review Essay: The Evolving Citizen: American Youth and the Changing Norms of Democratic Engagement, by Jay P. Childers, After the Public Turn: Composition, Counterpublics, and the Citizen Bricoleur, by Frank Farmer, Prophets, Gurus, Pundits: Rhetorical Styles & Public Engagement, by Anna M. Young, and Letters to Power: Public Advocacy Without Public Intellectuals, by Samuel McCormick.
Research Interests:
When Anna White Dildane, a prostitute and heroin addict, was committed to the Laboratory of Social Hygiene (LSH) in 1917, she was treated by a staff that anticipated the methods of the biopsychosocial model later developed by Engel. That... more
When Anna White Dildane, a prostitute and heroin addict, was committed to the Laboratory of Social
Hygiene (LSH) in 1917, she was treated by a staff that anticipated the methods of the biopsychosocial
model later developed by Engel. That is to say, the staff members believed that Anna’s rehabilitation
was contingent on a scientific diagnosis of the physical, mental, and social factors that underlay her
condition. However, using Anna and the LSH as a case study, we draw from Latour to show the
limitations of this “modern” method of diagnosis and treatment that persists today. Using Burke, we
advocate for a pragmatic orientation focused on creating rhetorically oriented narratives whose aim is to
help patients make judgments about their health and future, namely, by bringing about the experience
of “form” capable of constituting new types of identification. Effective medical rhetoric thus adopts a
method of persuasion that begins with the narrative and self-understanding of the patient, links aspects
of that narrative with the technical expertise of physicians and other health care providers, and crafts a
new, more specialized narrative attentive to the desires and constraints of a patient’s form of identification
that is ultimately the seat of judgment.
Hygiene (LSH) in 1917, she was treated by a staff that anticipated the methods of the biopsychosocial
model later developed by Engel. That is to say, the staff members believed that Anna’s rehabilitation
was contingent on a scientific diagnosis of the physical, mental, and social factors that underlay her
condition. However, using Anna and the LSH as a case study, we draw from Latour to show the
limitations of this “modern” method of diagnosis and treatment that persists today. Using Burke, we
advocate for a pragmatic orientation focused on creating rhetorically oriented narratives whose aim is to
help patients make judgments about their health and future, namely, by bringing about the experience
of “form” capable of constituting new types of identification. Effective medical rhetoric thus adopts a
method of persuasion that begins with the narrative and self-understanding of the patient, links aspects
of that narrative with the technical expertise of physicians and other health care providers, and crafts a
new, more specialized narrative attentive to the desires and constraints of a patient’s form of identification
that is ultimately the seat of judgment.
Research Interests:
In this essay, we look at how three traditional forms of performance identified by Walter Benjamin function in the digital age. With greater accessibility to the means of production, digital performances can be created by just about... more
In this essay, we look at how three traditional forms of performance identified by Walter Benjamin function in the digital age. With greater accessibility to the means of production, digital performances can be created by just about anyone. The performances we analyze show how Benjamin's conception of the storyteller, the novelist, and the charlatan can thrive in online environments. While the performances of the storyteller and the novelist suggest new possibilities for online performance, the performance of the charlatan demonstrates the danger of not engaging with/in online performance.
Research Interests:
Com o objetivo de elucidar a natureza genuinamente radical da visão educacional e democrática de John Dewey, este ensaio articula uma visão da educação retórica contemporânea que se fundamenta em uma releitura do conceito de “vontade de... more
Com o objetivo de elucidar a natureza genuinamente radical da visão educacional e democrática de John Dewey, este ensaio articula uma visão da educação retórica contemporânea que se fundamenta em uma releitura do conceito de “vontade de poder”
de Friedrich Nietzsche. Considerando o tratamento dado por Dewey à vontade de poder em Human Nature and Conduct, defendo que a pedagogia retórica busca despertar, canalizar e finalmente compor os impulsos do estudante por meio da atividade da
inteligência, de modo a refletir e defender a escolha individual. O ensaio conclui com a definição de três atribuições chamadas genealogia, previsão e defesa.
de Friedrich Nietzsche. Considerando o tratamento dado por Dewey à vontade de poder em Human Nature and Conduct, defendo que a pedagogia retórica busca despertar, canalizar e finalmente compor os impulsos do estudante por meio da atividade da
inteligência, de modo a refletir e defender a escolha individual. O ensaio conclui com a definição de três atribuições chamadas genealogia, previsão e defesa.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Aesthetics, Political Philosophy, and 30 moreEthics, Communication, Pragmatism, Education, Rhetoric, Composition and Rhetoric, Democratic Theory, Governmentality, American Philosophy, War Rhetoric, Cultural Theory, Language and Ideology, Ideology, History Of Political Thought (Political Science), Rhetoric and Social Theory, Rhetoric and Public Culture, Political communication, Media and Democracy, Metaphor, History of Political Thought, John Dewey, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Democracy, Pragmatism (Philosophy), Rhetorical Theory, Social and Political Philosophy, Hannah Arendt, Rhetorical Theory and Criticism, American Pragmatism, and History of Philosophy
The vibrancy and health of political culture in democratic societies increasingly depends on the publicity and resolution of public scientific controversies. However, creating a framework for analysis that avoids reductive categorization... more
The vibrancy and health of political culture in democratic societies increasingly depends on the publicity and resolution of public scientific controversies. However, creating a framework for analysis that avoids reductive categorization remains a difficult task. This essay proposes a Habermasian framework of analysis for public scientific controversies and draws out its rhetorical implications. We argue that the roots of public scientific controversies are found in moments of urgency that call forth contested scientific theories into the public realm. These controversies embed epistemological disputes over knowledge-claims within pragmatic contexts, thus forcing interested parties to achieve some level of intersubjective consensus on the legitimacy of broad-based policies that fuse politics, ethics, and science. These controversies thus provide the situational grounds that make possible, if not always actual, the interaction among citizens, scientists, and legislators through rhetorical forums that feature the discursive interplay among epistemological concerns, aesthetic experience, moral valuation, and practical judgment.
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The lesson of Homer’s Iliad is that eloquence arises out of a confrontation with death. Perhaps the most dramatic of these confrontations is the death of Patroclus, an event that elicits epideictic speech by three parties: immortal... more
The lesson of Homer’s Iliad is that eloquence arises out of a confrontation with death. Perhaps the most dramatic of these confrontations is the death of Patroclus, an event that elicits epideictic speech by three parties: immortal horses, Xanthos and Balios; an immortal god, Zeus; and a mortal human, Patroclus. However, although the reaction of the horses and of Zeus reflect the pathos and logos of eloquence, respectively, this essay argues that true eloquence grows out of an experience of a divided self that heroically judges its own life meaningful—thereby constituting ethos through speech—in the face of death.
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When Alan Gross published The Rhetoric of Science in 1990, he helped initiate a productive controversy concerning the place of rhetoric in science studies while arguing for the continued importance of the classical rhetorical tradition.... more
When Alan Gross published The Rhetoric of Science in 1990, he helped initiate a productive controversy concerning the place of rhetoric in science studies while arguing for the continued importance of the classical rhetorical tradition. However, in his 2006 revision, Starring the Text, Gross significantly draws back the classical emphasis while making more central the place of the American analytic philosophical tradition stemming from the foundational logical writings of W.V.O Quine. This essay interrogates this shift in Gross’s writings in order to find the working definition of rhetoric that threads throughout his work. This definition, I argue, turns out to be grounded more in Quine’s holistic theory of epistemology than in any sophistical or even Aristotelian conception of language as a vehicle for advocating judgment in times of deliberation and crisis. I argue that a return to the classical emphasis on situated practice can enrich the study of the rhetoric of science and build on the significant accomplishments of Gross’s work.
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The lesson of Homer’s Iliad is that eloquence arises out a confrontation with death. Perhaps the most dramatic of these confrontations is the death of Patrocus, an event which elicits epideictic speech by three parties: immortal horses,... more
The lesson of Homer’s Iliad is that eloquence arises out a confrontation with death. Perhaps the most dramatic of these confrontations is the death of Patrocus, an event which elicits epideictic speech by three parties: immortal horses, Xanthos and Balios, an immortal god, Zeus, and a mortal human, Patroclus. However, although the reaction of the horses and of Zeus reflect the pathos and logos of eloquence, respectively, we argue that true eloquence grows out of an experience of a divided self that heroically judges its own life meaningful—thereby constituting ethos through speech—in the face of death.
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Rhetoric is an art that finds its habitation in events. Rhetoric emerges within growing points of opposition and struggle, using language to constitute facts that stand out from situations in order to give to an audience the burden of... more
Rhetoric is an art that finds its habitation in events. Rhetoric emerges within growing points of opposition and struggle, using language to constitute facts that stand out from situations in order to give to an audience the burden of judgment. This article seeks to provide a framework for articulating the relationship between rhetoric and events through the writings of John Dewey and his collaborator Arthur Bentley, who found in the term “event” a way of advancing their transactional perspective on human action that they believed could function as a corrective to pervasive social pathologies. Using their vocabulary, it advances a definition of rhetoric as an art that reacts to events by constituting meaningful situations in which judgments of character are possible. But it also claims that the ethics of transaction requires a more subtle and long-term effort to show how our own characters as “individuals” are themselves formed in transaction with rhetoric and events.
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Research Interests:
This article accepts Lipari's invitation to continue rethinking communication along the lines of artful listening as understood through the lens of phenomenology. However, we trace out the implications following a different... more
This article accepts Lipari's invitation to continue rethinking communication along the lines of artful listening as understood through the lens of phenomenology. However, we trace out the implications following a different phenomenological tradition than the one stemming from the German tradition of Heidegger and Husserl—specifically, the phenomenology of Charles Sanders Peirce, who allows us to see listening differently and perhaps more clearly. The primary contribution from Peirce's phenomenology is the logos he uses to extract 3 fundamental categories of thought and nature: Firstness (Quality), Secondness (Relation), and Thirdness (Mediation). As we shall show, listening is characterized by a plural consciousness sensitive to Mediation as it reveals itself through Relation and Quality.
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"During his stay in China from the outset of the May Fourth Movement in 1919 to 1921, American philosopher John Dewey wrote about the tension between customary, statute, and edict law which respectively derived their powers from long... more
"During his stay in China from the outset of the May Fourth Movement in 1919 to 1921, American
philosopher John Dewey wrote about the tension between customary, statute, and edict law which
respectively derived their powers from long standing tradition, from state-sanctioned legal principle, and
from the narrow exertion of force. Even though contemporary China is very different from the China Dewey
observed, the development of legal communication and practice remains continuous with his account. Dewey
predicted that China would develop its own path by integrating customary law into a more transparent and
flexible system. New information and communication technologies have provided the outlet for many of the
contemporary critical thrusts that are reshaping communicative institutions in contemporary Chinese society.
This essay suggests that the increase in these technologies is making Dewey’s prophecy something closer to a
reality. The result is a novel exhibition of customary law through the power of social media in ways that
can appear both emancipatory, as a voice of the people, and oppressive, as a reorientation to the intolerance
of customary law."
philosopher John Dewey wrote about the tension between customary, statute, and edict law which
respectively derived their powers from long standing tradition, from state-sanctioned legal principle, and
from the narrow exertion of force. Even though contemporary China is very different from the China Dewey
observed, the development of legal communication and practice remains continuous with his account. Dewey
predicted that China would develop its own path by integrating customary law into a more transparent and
flexible system. New information and communication technologies have provided the outlet for many of the
contemporary critical thrusts that are reshaping communicative institutions in contemporary Chinese society.
This essay suggests that the increase in these technologies is making Dewey’s prophecy something closer to a
reality. The result is a novel exhibition of customary law through the power of social media in ways that
can appear both emancipatory, as a voice of the people, and oppressive, as a reorientation to the intolerance
of customary law."
Research Interests:
In John Dewey’s philosophy of education, schools would use experimental methods to cultivate the creative intelligence, independence of character, and social ethic necessary for individuals to find a meaningful and productive place within... more
In John Dewey’s philosophy of education, schools would use experimental methods to cultivate the creative intelligence, independence of character, and social ethic necessary for individuals to find a meaningful and productive place within both their local community and ever-expanding global society. However, up until 1926, Dewey had focused most of his attention on reforming the educational system of the United States. Only in 1926, when he encountered the newly founded rural schools in Mexico, did he articulate the possibility that his experimental methods of education might apply not only to urban cities like Chicago but also to smaller villages and towns in developing nations. This essay attempts to construct a working model of such an educational project, which I call a “pedagogy of freedom,” that expands access to and breadth of education without imposing a new set of hierarchies. Instead, a pedagogy of freedom increases the ability of students to move between the local and the global contexts in a way that enriches their connection to place while expanding their imaginative horizons, thereby providing them the means to determine and to achieve their own ends.
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In discussions of the role of “faith” in political discourse, attention almost always turns to a politician’s explicit references to “God” or some recognized scriptural authority. However, the assumption that any rhetoric called... more
In discussions of the role of “faith” in political discourse, attention almost always turns to a politician’s explicit references to “God” or some recognized scriptural authority. However, the assumption that any rhetoric called “religious” must sanction some established institution or doctrine denies the possibility of a rhetoric of religious experience grounded less in metaphysical actuality than in narrative possibility. This essay draws from the work of John Dewey to define the rhetoric of religious experience as a distinct genre of speech from the more traditional rhetoric of religion and then uses this lens to interpret the rhetoric of Barack Obama as both candidate and as President. Through exploration of Obama’s writings and speeches, I propose that this rhetoric offers a way of channeling the religious impulse that is consistent with the ethics of a pluralistic democracy which makes possible moments of collective overcoming.
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In Aristotle’s biological treatise, On the Parts of Animals, one finds a rare and unexpected burst of rhetorical eloquence. While justifying the study of “less valued animals,” he erupts into praise for the study of all natural phenomena... more
In Aristotle’s biological treatise, On the Parts of Animals, one finds a rare and unexpected burst of rhetorical eloquence. While justifying the study of “less valued animals,” he erupts into praise for the study of all natural phenomena and condemns the small-mindedness of those who trivialize its worth. Without equal in Aristotle’s remaining works for its rhetorical quality, it reveals the otherwise cool-headed researcher as a passionate seeker of truth and an unabashed lover of natural beauty. For Aristotle, rhetoric not only discloses the truth (aletheia) of appearances by refuting counter-arguments and defending one’s claims within agonistic forums; rhetoric also defends and advances whole fields of study on the promise on wonder (thaumazein). By examining Aristotle’s example in practice, this essay seeks to bring-forth a notion of the rhetoric for inquiry that calls lovers of wisdom to the empirical study of nature.
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We are still coming to terms with the legacy of Randolph Bourne. Although he died at the age of 32 just as the United States was cheerfully entering the First World War under the banner of “democracy,” the words he penned in an unfinished... more
We are still coming to terms with the legacy of Randolph Bourne. Although he died at the age of 32 just as the United States was cheerfully entering the First World War under the banner of “democracy,” the words he penned in an unfinished essay still resonate in the American social conscience: “War is the Health of the State.” This maxim, once thought the exclusive property of leftist radicals, now can be heard echoing from every political corner of the blogosphere as progressives and libertarians alike find cause to question the motives of governmental power. Yet despite his reappearance as a symbol, Bourne in many ways remains as forgotten as ever—perhaps even more so as his once provocative claim has been transformed into a talking point. This essay endeavors to recapture the voice of Bourne in all its complexity, seeking to place him at the forefront of the contemporary American intellectual tradition as one of its most piercing critics, most visionary poets, and most eloquent rhetors. Specifically, we show how Bourne’s critique of the “State” foresaw the rise of the technological society organized by ideological propaganda, how his vision of the Beloved Community anticipated our modern ideals of global transnationalism, and how his literary essays practiced a form of aesthetic rhetoric which employed dramatistic the methods to bring about a new state of expanded social consciousness.
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Traditional readings of Nietzsche’s essay, “On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense,” tend to emphasize the clash between philosophy and rhetoric in the form of two distinct personae—the intuitive, Sophistical artist who embraces the... more
Traditional readings of Nietzsche’s essay, “On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense,” tend to emphasize the clash between philosophy and rhetoric in the form of two distinct personae—the intuitive, Sophistical artist who embraces the rhetorical power of language to create and destroy on the one hand, and the rational, Stoic philosopher who uses concepts to order the world into a block universe on the other. However, I argue that his essay presents us with not two characters but three—the Stoic philosopher, political rhêtôr, and the Dionysian artist. Furthermore, none of these three characters can be said to be representative of Nietzsche’s attitude toward the Sophists. This essay thus proposes that a model of the Sophistical artist that combines aspects from each of these personae in a way that brings together the power of tragic uffering, persuasive word, and passionate music, respectively. This reading of Nietzsche’s work thus hopes to bring forth a possible understanding of the Sophist as an unfettered spirit, well-versed in experience, for whom music and word cooperate to produce a higher culture capable of grand aspirations and opportune actions while always cognizant of the sublime and terrible nature that underlies their fragile dreams of beauty.
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Democracy is often described in terms of the aesthetics of multiplicity in uniformity, which celebrates the feeling of community of individuals coming together in difference. However, a more reliable mark of a healthy democratic society... more
Democracy is often described in terms of the aesthetics of multiplicity in uniformity, which celebrates the feeling of community of individuals coming together in difference. However, a more reliable mark of a healthy democratic society is the periodic presence of rhetorical singularities that challenge shared conventions and risk rhetorical failure for the sake of inspiring excellence in character. Like the prose of Emerson and Nietzsche, rhetorical singularities employ tragic ideals to expose the comic limitations of culture in order to transvaluate values and dare creative individuals to strive past limits and so advance society beyond the bounds of convention.
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Traditionally, the Older Sophists were conceived as philosophical skeptics who rejected speculative inquiry to focus on rhetorical methods of being successful in practical life. More recently, this view has been complicated by studies... more
Traditionally, the Older Sophists were conceived as philosophical skeptics who rejected speculative inquiry to focus on rhetorical methods of being successful in practical life. More recently, this view has been complicated by studies revealing the Sophists to be a diverse group of intellectuals who practiced their art prior to the categorization of “rhêtorikê,” thereby rendering the very meaning of the general term “Sophist” far more problematic. Both perspectives conceal the common attitude that unites the Sophists as a group and is central to understanding their democratic ethos rooted in an experimental attitude that draws on the resources of speculative reason to serve the purpose of radical invention necessary for a democratization of the productive arts. Recovering the professionalism and experimentalism of the Sophists contributes to the democratic project of promoting the productive and collaborative arts—including rhetoric—that employ the resources of theoretical knowledge to inform collective practice and thereby assist in controlling the fortunes of humankind in a changing world
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Plato’s Symposium is a significant but neglected part of his elaborate and complex attitude toward rhetoric. Unlike the intellectual discussion of the Gorgias or the unscripted conversation of the Phaedrus, the Symposium stages a feast... more
Plato’s Symposium is a significant but neglected part of his elaborate and complex attitude toward rhetoric. Unlike the intellectual discussion of the Gorgias or the unscripted conversation of the Phaedrus, the Symposium stages a feast celebrating and driven by the forces of Eros. A luxuriously stylish performance rather than a rational critique or a bemused apotheosis of rhetoric, the Symposium asks that it be read within a performative tradition that emphasizes the artistic enactment of both argument and story as well as the incarnation of utterances intoxicated by wine and erotic urge. Only by fully embracing the festive complexion of the Symposium can one escape the claims of its words and come close to the spirit that inhabits its tragic vision and comic sophistication. At stake in this approach is our understanding of ourselves as actors in and spectators of the drama of life, a drama punctuated by rhetorical ecstasies that underwrite the wish for immortality.
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One of Henry David Thoreau’s great accomplishments was to develop a form of rhetoric that combined elements of both transcendentalism and empiricism for the purpose of bridging the divide between mind and body, culture and nature, and... more
One of Henry David Thoreau’s great accomplishments was to develop a form of rhetoric that combined elements of both transcendentalism and empiricism for the purpose of bridging the divide between mind and body, culture and nature, and poetry and science. Content neither with eulogizing Spirit nor categorizing Nature, Thoreau saw science as a poetic art whose function was to reveal the ways in which the human spirit is an interconnected part of the natural environment. Initially a follower of Emerson who saw in Nature evidence of the romantic sublime, Thoreau eventually came to value natural inquiry for its aesthetic and pragmatic consequences. The focus on his essay, however, is how this attitude also produced rhetorical consequences. Specifically, I show how Thoreau developed what I call the rhetoric of Transcendental Ecology that employs the language of science and poetry to make possible the anticipation of beauty so that the audience recognizes, values, and preserves their vital connection with Nature.
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The rise of the critical blogosphere has challenged the authority of the mainstream media while sparking discussion concerning the proper relationship between news production and popular democracy in an Internet Age. All too often,... more
The rise of the critical blogosphere has challenged the authority of the mainstream media while sparking discussion concerning the proper relationship between news production and popular democracy in an Internet Age. All too often, however, this discussion is framed as a stark tension between aristocratic defenders of Old Media professionalism and democratic proponents of New Media egalitarianism. Lost in this framing is the tacit agreement, by both sides, that a solution must be found within the constraints of a corporate liberal media structure. This essay argues that if we are to make full use of the opportunities presented to us by new technologies, we must move beyond the discourse of corporate liberalism. Toward this end, I return to the philosophical debate between John Dewey and Walter Lippmann that occurred in the early part of the 20th century. Based both on their shared principles and their points of departure, I argue that any productive discussion about democratic media reform must begin on the premise that we must supplement the current communication practices of corporate liberalism with noncommercial agencies of cooperative social inquiry and artistic news production. For both Dewey and Lippmann, only through creative investment of public resources can we facilitate intelligent and sympathetic collective judgment in a complex global environment. Their debate concerned only how and where to invest them.
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Rorty is very much a public intellectual, and in addition to producing an impressive body of technical philosophy, he has spent a substantial amount of time writing material designed for public consumption. In doing so, he has sought to... more
Rorty is very much a public intellectual, and in addition to producing an impressive body of technical philosophy, he has spent a substantial amount of time writing material designed for public consumption. In doing so, he has sought to foster public solidarity around progressive political goals, a project he considers dependent upon the writing of utopian narratives that connect the struggles of the past to the possibility of a better future. Historicism thus plays an important role in both Rorty’s philosophical efforts and his political work. As we argue in what follows, however, there is an important sense in which Rorty’s efforts to overturn the correspondence theory of truth actually threaten to undermine his ability to engage with other scholars interested in writing historical narratives. When Rorty jettisons metaphysics in favor of a neo-pragmatic conception of language he also loses his ability to justify the claims he makes to those of us who take a critical interest in them. As a result, his efforts at narrating the past are insubstantial creatures, unsatisfying to historians and unable to do the work that he desires. Like an image in a watery pool, they quickly dissolve when touched.
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The vibrancy and health of political culture in democratic societies increasingly depends on the publicity and resolution of public scientific controversies. However, creating a framework for analysis that avoids reductive categorization... more
The vibrancy and health of political culture in democratic societies increasingly depends on the publicity and resolution of public scientific controversies. However, creating a framework for analysis that avoids reductive categorization remains a difficult task. This essay proposes a Habermasian framework of analysis for public scientific controversies and draws out its rhetorical implications. We argue that the roots of public scientific controversies are found in moments of urgency that call forth contested scientific theories into the public realm. These controversies embed epistemological disputes over knowledge-claims within pragmatic contexts, thus forcing interested parties to achieve some level of intersubjective consensus on the legitimacy of broad-based policies that fuse politics, ethics, and science. These controversies thus provide the situational grounds which makes possible, if not always actual, the interaction among citizens, scientists, and legislators through rhetorical forums that feature the discursive interplay among epistemological concerns, aesthetic experience, moral valuation, and practical judgment.
Research Interests:
Public intellectuals are not determined by counting public pronouncements, measuring class allegiances, or fitting their work into a convenient pigeon hole. Rather, public intellectuals are those who react to the problems of their... more
Public intellectuals are not determined by counting public pronouncements, measuring class allegiances, or fitting their work into a convenient pigeon hole. Rather, public intellectuals are those who react to the problems of their sociohistorical situation by creating enduring works that broadly influence cultural habits and institutional practices during their lifetimes. Thus, I argue that the work of public intellectuals arises in response to and is directed toward resolving exigencies of their sociohistorical situation much in the same way that rhetoric seeks to address exigencies in “rhetorical situations”; the only difference is that public intellectuals, as intellectuals and not politicians or pundits, respond to exigencies that are broader in time and in space than what are traditionally considered “rhetorical situations.” For example, Copernicus’s work challenged traditional notions of the place of human beings in the universe; Sinclair’s work revealed the horrors of twentieth-century industrial capitalism in America; Kant’s work institutionalized the separation between science and moral values in Germany; Dewey’s work established the vital connection between educational practice and democratic social life; and Protagoras’s work provided a defense of rhetorical training in the face of the aristocratic tradition. The form and the content of the work of each of these intellectuals differed, but what they had in common was that they were all technē that sought to transform their sociohistorical situation.
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With the rise of anti-foundationalist critiques of the autonomous subject, attention has turned from inquiries into the nature of “intentional persuasion” to a focus on the constitutive nature of discourse. Although this turn has led to... more
With the rise of anti-foundationalist critiques of the autonomous subject, attention has turned from inquiries into the nature of “intentional persuasion” to a focus on the constitutive nature of discourse. Although this turn has led to valuable new insights into the nature of rhetoric, it also threatens to discount one of the most vital contributions of the rhetorical tradition—the nature of rhetorical invention. This essay seeks to recover the notion of invention by drawing from John Dewey’s naturalistic interpretation of experience. In Dewey’s framework, “consciousness” is neither a subjective receptacle for individual thought nor a point of articulation for a larger discourse, but a practice of manipulating public meanings as a means of responding to indeterminate situations. I then use Dewey’s notion to advance the concept of a “rhetorical consciousness,” which is the more specific practice of using the Sophistical concepts of imitatio and dissoi logoi to respond to indeterminate situations with the invention of rhetorical discourse. To demonstrate this pragmatic view of consciousness I then show how the concept of a “rhetorical consciousness” helps us understand a crucial facet of the method by which Charles Darwin invented the revolutionary arguments that led up to his publication of On the Origin of Species. My hope is that this naturalistic interpretation of rhetorical invention will contribute to the ongoing project of encouraging new forms of democratic education that seek to cultivate a more intelligent, critical, and creative citizenry through the application of classical rhetorical principles.
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Following a “sophistic” interpretation, this essay argues that thought experiments are enthymemes which rely on the active cooperation of speaker and audience to affect rhetorical persuasion through an appeal to the creative imagination... more
Following a “sophistic” interpretation, this essay argues that thought experiments are enthymemes which rely on the active cooperation of speaker and audience to affect rhetorical persuasion through an appeal to the creative imagination of the hearers. This premise not only makes both rhetoric and audience important and irreducible factors in scientific argumentation, but it also supports Campbell’s claim about the importance of “colloquial language and associations” in even the most abstract scientific theory. This claim will be elaborated in two sections. First, I examine the nature of the enthymeme and its relationship to thought experiment through a critical reading of Nicholas Rescher’s attempt to prove the “incomplete syllogism” hypothesis. Second, I show how thought experiments work in scientific explanation through a case study of the evolutionary debate over whether Darwinian natural selection could have produced the kind of complex organ we see in the vertebrate eye. In sum, by examining the manner in which proponents and opponents of natural selection utilize thought experiments to prove or disprove evolutionary theory, I demonstrate not only that thought experiments are effective rhetorical tools, but also that they are constitutive factors in scientific theories.
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Discussion of John Dewey within the discipline of communication is often restricted to his “ritual view” of communication or his youthful hope in the democratic potential of mass communication technologies. However, both of these... more
Discussion of John Dewey within the discipline of communication is often restricted to his “ritual view” of communication or his youthful hope in the democratic potential of mass communication technologies. However, both of these approaches neglect the importance of his aesthetic theory for understanding both his philosophy of communication and his overall social thought. This essay takes a developmental perspective on Dewey’s philosophy and traces how his concepts of experience and communication evolved over three decades and finally came to be unified in his concept of aesthetic experience. I argue that a developmental perspective on Dewey’s aesthetic philosophy contributes a broader and more flexible understanding of communication that leads to the view that communication, at its best, is a form of art in which poiesis and praxis are united within a single, consummatory experience.
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Although the Bartholomae/Elbow debate is often framed as a modern conflict between the advocates of “academic” and “personal” writing, it is more appropriately viewed as the most recent manifestation of the historical clash between... more
Although the Bartholomae/Elbow debate is often framed as a modern conflict between the advocates of “academic” and “personal” writing, it is more appropriately viewed as the most recent manifestation of the historical clash between expressivism and constructivism. However, both sides of this conflict, which split over whether to see writing as a product of the mind or of an external discourse, themselves rest upon common a dualist assumption that the primary task of language is to provide linguistic representations of a transcendental ego. This essay first draws from the work of Richard Rorty and John Dewey in order to critique the dualist legacy of the expressivist/constructivist debate, and then explicates Dewey’s views on mind, language, and experience in order to reconstruct a pragmatic philosophy of communication and a progressive composition pedagogy.
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John Dewey once wrote: "Of all affairs, communication is the most wonderful." For him communication is the highest of the "arts of life," for it is in communication that society is born and nurtured. It is by communication that we... more
John Dewey once wrote: "Of all affairs, communication is the most wonderful." For him communication is the highest of the "arts of life," for it is in communication that society is born and nurtured. It is by communication that we discover the possibilities of nature. And it is through communication that we make our shared experience meaningful. It is no wonder, then, that Dewey would conclude The Public and Its Problems with this provocative statement: Democracy "will have its consummation when free social inquiry is indissolubly wedded to the art of full and moving communication."Dewey, however, does not adequately explain what he understands by "the art of full and moving communication" and never tells us how "communication" functions in the varied contexts of practical life. Despite, then, his obvious affection for communication, he leaves many questions about it unanswered. For instance, what makes communication possible? In what kind of situations is communication called for and why? How does an inchoate feeling or idea find concrete embodiment in language? What are the connections among language, communication, thought, feeling, and action? Most importantly, what is the process by which one employs the art of communication to influence the beliefs and behaviors of others? This dissertation addresses these questions by approaching Dewey's thinking on communication from a distinctly rhetorical perspective. Even though Dewey almost never mentions "rhetoric" in his entire corpus, I argue that it is precisely the absence of the term from his writings that makes a rhetorical reading of his work all the more imperative. Such a reading permits us to understand the practical importance of the "art of communication" in the larger context of his social thought. If, then, the problem with Dewey's writing on communication is that it often drifts into abstractions, one remedy is take those abstractions and place them into concrete situations, where communication is required to transform some part of the environment through transaction with human thought and action. Because this kind of activity has been the specific domain of rhetoric since the time of the sophists, it is only appropriate to read Dewey's work through that tradition.In effect, the goal of this dissertation is to explicate Dewey's theory of communication in the terms of a rhetorical theory. But insofar as his thought went through three distinct "periods" in his lifetime, beginning with his Idealistic period in 1880, moving into his Experimental period in 1903, and culminating in his Naturalistic period in 1925, Dewey can be said to have had three implicit rhetorical theories. To articulate and explain each of these theories, I trace Dewey's theoretical development through time and construct, through published works, private correspondence, and biographical material. I show that the first theory envisioned rhetoric as a form of eros that helps us grow towards Absolute self consciousness. The second theory views rhetoric as a form of critical inquiry whose goal is the development of phronçsis, or practical wisdom. The third theory treats rhetoric as a productive technç, or a naturalistic form of art that has the power to transform experience, nature, and society through its transactional character.By tracing Dewey's theoretical development and explicating three implicit theories of rhetoric in his writings, this dissertation not only provides a unique perspective on Dewey's changing views on language, ontology, and social practice, but also demonstrates how each theory can still be effectively used to interpret and guide the art of rhetoric. This kind of work enables us to grasp different facets of this diverse and vibrant art. At the same time, it shows how Dewey's work remains an important resource for those who wish to promote and sustain a democratic way of life by educating citizens in the art of full and moving communication.
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This essay aims to reconstruct Protagoras as a philosopher whose thinking surpassed that of his predecessors and his successors. Understanding how Protagoras accomplished this task requires placing him within the context of Pre-Socratic... more
This essay aims to reconstruct Protagoras as a philosopher whose thinking surpassed that of his predecessors and his successors. Understanding how Protagoras accomplished this task requires placing him within the context of Pre-Socratic thinking, specifically the thinking of Parmenides and Heraclitus. Such placement seeks to demonstrate that he adapted their premises to fit his humanist, democratic ends. In what follows, I will show that far from disregarding his predecessors, Protagoras builds upon their foundations while making two important modifications: he replaces the Being of the world with the Being of experience, and the Logos of nature with the nomos of humanity. The result is a philosophy that at once seeks to clear away old dogmas while providing a new vision for social organization. I demonstrate this thesis in three sections. First, I explore how Protagoras reconciled the apparently contradictory philosophies of Heraclitus and Parmenides; second, I show, through a reading of Plato’s Theaetetus, how Protagoras transformed this part of the Pre-Socratic tradition for application within a social democracy; and third, I clarify the relationship of truth and judgment that emerges in the debate between Protagoras and Socrates. This exercise in what George Kerferd calls “quasi-archaeological reconstruction” (173) is open to challenge, but it offers an argumentative position that Protagoras may have adopted in order to navigate between the Schylla of dogmatic realism and the Charbdis of solipsistic relativism.
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Although he was most famous for his books of fiction and philosophy, 20th century Spanish public intellectual Miguel de Unamuno also wrote a large body of newspaper articles in which he critiqued politics and society during his lifetime.... more
Although he was most famous for his books of fiction and philosophy, 20th century Spanish public intellectual Miguel de Unamuno also wrote a large body of newspaper articles in which he critiqued politics and society during his lifetime. Unamuno lived during a polarized time in Spanish history, and he witnessed many political and social conflicts, including the Third Carlist War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, a military dictatorship, the Second Spanish Republic, Franco’s military coup, and the Spanish Civil War. In the midst of this atmosphere of conflict and polarization, Unamuno used the medium of the newspaper to diagnose Spain’s problem and to present possible solutions. This project examines the rhetorical style that Unamuno developed in response to his political context, as he examined Spanish society and the various political regimes in Spain. As he defined the problem, Unamuno characterized it as one of ideology, excess rationalism, and inauthenticity. To solve this problem, Unamuno approached it in two ways. First, he acted as what he called an “idea-breaker,” or as one who assumes an attitude of skepticism and uses individual thought to break down ideas and dogma. Second, he created a unified collective consciousness in Spain through what he called intrahistory, or the history that occurs beneath the level of written history. Intrahistory comprises the everyday bonds between people, and Unamuno used this to build a community and a collective consciousness in the people of Spain. He did this through his use of language, descriptions of the physical environment, deep bonds of personal relationships, legends, and spiritual authenticity.
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The accidental opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9th, 1989, dismantled the political narratives of the East and the West and opened up a rhetorical arena for political narrators like the East German citizen movements, the West German... more
The accidental opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9th, 1989, dismantled the political narratives of the East and the West and opened up a rhetorical arena for political narrators like the East German citizen movements, the West German press, and the West German leadership to define and exploit the political crisis and put forward favorable resolutions. With this dissertation, I trace the neglected and forgotten political directions as they reside in the narratives of the East German citizen movements, the West German press, and the West German political leadership between November 1989 and February 1990. The events surrounding November 9th, 1989, present a unique opportunity for this endeavor in that the common flows of political communication between organized East German publics, the West German press, and West German political leaders changed for a moment and with it the distribution of political legitimacy. To account for these new flows of political communication and the battle between different political crisis narrators over the rhetorical rights to reestablish political legitimacy, I develop a rhetorical model for political crisis narrative. This theoretical model integrates insights from political crisis communication theories,
strategic narratives, and rhetoric. My analyses then test this model by tracing the narrative trajectories and rhetorical transformations of the narrative enactments by the East German citizen movements, the West German press, and the West German political leadership.
As recent historical research revealed, Helmut Kohl favored what others refers to as the “pre-fabrication model” for German and European unification, which entails the expansion of West German and European legal, political, and economic systems eastward. Using Sarotte’s research about Kohl’s prefab model as a rhetorical anchor, my reconstructions of the different political crisis narratives reveal how the individual narratives support or weaken Helmut Kohl’s pre-fabrication model for German and European reunification. Finally, while the West’s rhetoric of practical politics, economic necessity, and rapid unification offered short-term solutions for political and economic integration, it concealed long-term narrative possibilities for German and European
integration. Thus, this dissertation discusses the hidden rhetorical possibility for German and European political integration as they reside within the discourse between the East German opposition groups, the West German press, and the West German political leadership.
strategic narratives, and rhetoric. My analyses then test this model by tracing the narrative trajectories and rhetorical transformations of the narrative enactments by the East German citizen movements, the West German press, and the West German political leadership.
As recent historical research revealed, Helmut Kohl favored what others refers to as the “pre-fabrication model” for German and European unification, which entails the expansion of West German and European legal, political, and economic systems eastward. Using Sarotte’s research about Kohl’s prefab model as a rhetorical anchor, my reconstructions of the different political crisis narratives reveal how the individual narratives support or weaken Helmut Kohl’s pre-fabrication model for German and European reunification. Finally, while the West’s rhetoric of practical politics, economic necessity, and rapid unification offered short-term solutions for political and economic integration, it concealed long-term narrative possibilities for German and European
integration. Thus, this dissertation discusses the hidden rhetorical possibility for German and European political integration as they reside within the discourse between the East German opposition groups, the West German press, and the West German political leadership.
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In this project, I track the development of Margaret Fuller’s rhetoric of transcendental nationalism within the context of the Roman revolution in 1848. My central purpose is to situate the legacy of Margaret Fuller in the field of... more
In this project, I track the development of Margaret Fuller’s rhetoric of transcendental
nationalism within the context of the Roman revolution in 1848. My central purpose is to situate the legacy of Margaret Fuller in the field of rhetorical theory and criticism, as well as to position her dispatches from Italy as the culmination of her work—not an eclipse of her previous writings, but a vital part of any understanding of the woman, the writer, the Transcendentalist, the feminist, the nationalist, the revolutionary that was Margaret Fuller. Furthermore, I argue that Fuller’s dispatches offer a model for a distinctly transcendental form of nationalism through her combined skills, such as critiquing large networks of power, her classical knowledge and familiarity with the language of myth, her growing narrative form and structure, her love of German-Romantic philosophy and literature, her literary nationalist voice, and her deeply-rooted
belief in the collective power of the Italian people.
Although arriving as a travel-writer abroad, Fuller was also a foreign correspondent for the New-York Tribune with the task of reporting back on any and all happenings. Europe, at the time, was in a tumultuous state, which would soon erupt in open insurrection and full-blown revolution. And Fuller was right in the middle of it. After travelling through England and France, she arrived in Italy and quickly became a convert to the Italian nationalist cause. Although her dispatches begin with descriptions of her encounters with art, nature and culture, once in Italy Fuller adopts a more aggressive rhetorical voice that quickly evolves into a sophisticated rhetoric of transcendental nationalism. This dissertation will explore how Fuller transformed her Transcendental belief in the power of individualism and the art of self-culture into a radical, revolutionary, nationalist rhetorical style that called a nation together based on common origin, character, spirit, and destiny in an effort to pursue a new Democratic Order. This dissertation thus traces the works of Margaret Fuller beginning with her major publications in America, continuing through her dispatches from Europe (1846-1850), and ending with a distinct rhetorical form and style, which I call the rhetoric of transcendental nationalism.
nationalism within the context of the Roman revolution in 1848. My central purpose is to situate the legacy of Margaret Fuller in the field of rhetorical theory and criticism, as well as to position her dispatches from Italy as the culmination of her work—not an eclipse of her previous writings, but a vital part of any understanding of the woman, the writer, the Transcendentalist, the feminist, the nationalist, the revolutionary that was Margaret Fuller. Furthermore, I argue that Fuller’s dispatches offer a model for a distinctly transcendental form of nationalism through her combined skills, such as critiquing large networks of power, her classical knowledge and familiarity with the language of myth, her growing narrative form and structure, her love of German-Romantic philosophy and literature, her literary nationalist voice, and her deeply-rooted
belief in the collective power of the Italian people.
Although arriving as a travel-writer abroad, Fuller was also a foreign correspondent for the New-York Tribune with the task of reporting back on any and all happenings. Europe, at the time, was in a tumultuous state, which would soon erupt in open insurrection and full-blown revolution. And Fuller was right in the middle of it. After travelling through England and France, she arrived in Italy and quickly became a convert to the Italian nationalist cause. Although her dispatches begin with descriptions of her encounters with art, nature and culture, once in Italy Fuller adopts a more aggressive rhetorical voice that quickly evolves into a sophisticated rhetoric of transcendental nationalism. This dissertation will explore how Fuller transformed her Transcendental belief in the power of individualism and the art of self-culture into a radical, revolutionary, nationalist rhetorical style that called a nation together based on common origin, character, spirit, and destiny in an effort to pursue a new Democratic Order. This dissertation thus traces the works of Margaret Fuller beginning with her major publications in America, continuing through her dispatches from Europe (1846-1850), and ending with a distinct rhetorical form and style, which I call the rhetoric of transcendental nationalism.
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Walden queers its readers. While many have investigated Thoreau’s queerness, there has been little notice of Walden’s queerness. This project begins with a situational analysis that identifies the melancholic antecedents of Walden in... more
Walden queers its readers. While many have investigated Thoreau’s queerness, there has been little notice of Walden’s queerness. This project begins with a situational analysis that identifies the melancholic antecedents of Walden in Thoreau’s life and his choices that led to the illumination of his melancholia. Thoreau had already been experimenting with what Branka Arsić identified as “literalization.” Nevertheless, a period of crisis, detailed by Robert Milder, made him aware of what Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok have referred to as the melancholic’s blind skill of “demetaphorization.” I suggest that Thoreau exploited this skill to produce Walden’s unique ability to feed on and, as Henry Abelove and Henry Golemba have suggested, awaken its reader’s desires. I combine a close reading of Walden with selective study of the text’s reception. Walden delivers on Thoreau’s theory of friendship from his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Walden’s friendship with its reader is the agency that accomplishes what Henry Golemba and Lawrence Buell have noted as a blurring of the boundary between reader and text. To investigate this friendship and Walden’s accommodations of faux friendship, I construct a Burkean perspective by incongruity using research in the nature-writing and rhetoric disciplines that intersect with Thoreauvian studies. This incongruity is analyzed using not only Burke’s theories of literary form and literature as equipment for living, but also Deleuze’s process philosophy and Deleuze and Guattari’s analyses of the war machine and their spatial analysis. This project complexifies Erin Rand’s research on polemics, using Deleuze’s multiplicity not only to explain why polemics are unpredictable, but also to address what Sarah Hallenbeck has referred to as “the crisis of agency.” I suggest an expansion of José Esteban Muñoz’s research. The question of how one actually transitions from melancholia to disidentification cannot be adequately answered with terms like Stuart Hall’s ‘oppositional reading’ or Deleuze and Guattari’s ‘de/reterritorialization.’ I also suggest that queer utopian thinking and poststructuralism are more compatible than previously argued. This dissertation is itself a polemic, straining the possibilities of friendship in the service of queerness.
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This analysis is an attempt to study the rise of a new mobile food medium the food truck. I examine the movement of rhetorical actors, the situation, the audiences, and discourses created and sustained through rhetorical practices. These... more
This analysis is an attempt to study the rise of a new mobile food medium the food truck. I examine the movement of rhetorical actors, the situation, the audiences, and discourses created and sustained through rhetorical practices. These include looking into contemporary controversies, the history and storytelling that helps to convey identity, a new aesthetic experience created by the medium, and specifically their sophistic character and rhetoric helping them speak on issues of social justice and change. To understand these texts, I examine each of them in light of their rhetorical situation and the convergence of a multitude of kairotic factors. I use the situation as a hinge to examine how the movement, through its rhetorical practices and characters have changed the foodscape and the foodways of the communities in which they are active.
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This thesis examines Cornel West’s description of the human condition and the works of art produced in three particular ways. First, there is being human which is a universal condition that speaks to all people and their struggles in the... more
This thesis examines Cornel West’s description of the human condition and the works of art produced in three particular ways. First, there is being human which is a universal condition that speaks to all people and their struggles in the face of death and fallibility. Second, there is the condition of being modern, which speaks to people in a particular age in which power must be challenged with intelligence. Third, there is the idea of being American, which is to confront historical legacies of injustice through political action and agency. Rhetoric speaks to these existential crises and draws its resources from jazz, blues, tragicomic and prophetic pragmatism to create a community of affiliation and rich discourse that’s beneficial and productive for all.
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This is a study of the theory of critical Sophistic logic that underwrote Hu Shi’s involvement in China’s 20th century reform period known as the Chinese Renaissance. Hu Shi was a radical liberal reformer who played a leading role in the... more
This is a study of the theory of critical Sophistic logic that underwrote Hu Shi’s involvement in China’s 20th century reform period known as the Chinese Renaissance. Hu Shi was a radical liberal reformer who played a leading role in the New Culture Movement. He pursued a two-pronged project for cultural reform. One side of the reform was focused on developing a critical pragmatic logical theory. This side was aimed at the intellectual class and appealed to the heritage of the Confucian literati. The other side of the reform was focused on lifting the people’s vernacular language from vulgarity to serve as the foundation for an aesthetically developed and nationally shared knowledge. The national language and body of knowledge would equip the common people with tools for communicating with one another to share experiences and coordinate judgments about situations of public contingency. This side of the reform appealed to the heritage of the oral tradition. Hu Shi conceived of the two sides of the reform in coordination. They would bridge the traditional divide between the intellectual and common class and unify the nation in critical rhetorical language. Hu developed the Literary Revolution to pursue goals on both sides of the reform. It would make the vernacular language the national language by elevating its status and expanding the accessibility of written materials. He wanted to make cultural exposure and education common for all. With education and literacy, the people could gain a sense of the future, a body of shared experiences, and the ability to address the most pressing problems of the day.
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This dissertation explores the writings of the American public intellectual and theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). My project is a unique contribution to Niebuhrian studies in that I approach these works from the perspective of a... more
This dissertation explores the writings of the American public intellectual and theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). My project is a unique contribution to Niebuhrian studies in that I approach these works from the perspective of a rhetorical theorist. My intention is to parse from Niebuhr’s editorial commentaries, his philosophical inquiries and lectures, his theological treatises, and his sermonic essays an specifically “Niebuhrian ethics of rhetoric.” In order to accomplish this task I investigate the rhetorical situation Niebuhr was embedded in and to which he was responding to at the turn of the twentieth century. Part of the analysis of his rhetorical situation places him in conversation with other thinkers writing at the turn of the century, such as John Dewey and Walter Lippmann. From the rhetorical situation, the dissertation tackles Niebuhr’s thought in three categories: Niebuhr’s mythic—specifically Christian—approach to history, his dialectical approach to love, justice, grace and power, and finally, his rhetorical approach to the contemporary situations that call for judgment. I argue that Niebuhr’s ethics of rhetoric are specifically Christian, in that they provide, on the one hand, the necessary mythic and dialectical tools one needs to make judgments in tragic realm of contingency, and on the other hand, the hope and faith that is required to move beyond the tragic realm of rhetoric without despair or cynicism. Niebuhr’s characteristic “pragmatic Christian realism,” I argue, is a much-needed approach to the ethics of rhetoric, one that is important for us to understand in a globalized “electric age,” wherein the shared myths that found communities elude us, though we remain asked to make judgments that effect collectives we may never see face-to-face. Niebuhr’s ethics of rhetoric is a guiding light for a rhetorical approach that moves past the local community, fragmented since the industrial revolution and rationalized since the Enlightenment, to a broader sense of community that is neither Jewish nor Greek—neither, me might add, Muslim or Western. It is a rhetoric that moves us confidently, yet qualifiedly, into the future that is beyond tragedy.
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The two of them passed the sign welcoming them to “The Future Hummel Lane Estates.” The sign had a large, grinning bee on it. Marty wasn’t sure what the bee had to do with the houses or why it was grinning. If anything, the construction... more
The two of them passed the sign welcoming them to “The Future Hummel Lane Estates.” The sign had a large, grinning bee on it. Marty wasn’t sure what the bee had to do with the houses or why it was grinning. If anything, the construction had bulldozed whatever bees had once been there, so the bee had no right to be happy. Then again, everyone was destined to get bulldozed by somebody. They might as well try to make the most of it. The giant bee knew the score and was taking his family to New Jersey. It was his chance to make it big in the pollen racket. He was just following the American way by making his living off of the dead. It was what they all did, and Marty was no exception. He was feeding off of Frank’s memory just as much as the bee was feeding off his family’s rotting bee carcasses.
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Rhetoric and Donald Trump
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For the original American pragmatists, human experience in a natural and social environment is the origin and end of all human thought and action, with language being a means of transforming and guiding that experience. The intellectual... more
For the original American pragmatists, human experience in a natural and social environment is the origin and end of all human thought and action, with language being a means of transforming and guiding that experience. The intellectual movement known as ...
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When John Dewey announced that communication was the most wonderful of all affairs, he recognized the centrality of communication within the tradition of American pragmatism. In other traditions of philosophy, such as idealism or... more
When John Dewey announced that communication was the most wonderful of all affairs, he recognized the centrality of communication within the tradition of American pragmatism. In other traditions of philosophy, such as idealism or empiricism, communication certainly played a role, but usually it was a secondary function of transmitting ideas from one mind to another. In idealism, ideas were discovered through intuitive revelation of the whole and only later expressed through transcendent eloquence, whereas in empiricism, particular data was attained purely by the senses and communication served a kind of documentary function of fact gathering. Pragmatism, however, inverted this traditional hierarchy. By arguing that the meaning of our ideas was only found in their effects and consequences in experience, particularly those consequences brought about through shared experience, pragmatists made communication both the origin and consummation of knowledge—regardless if that knowledge was practical, scientific, aesthetic, or social. Consequently, pragmatists believed that improving the quality of communication practices was central to improving not only the state of knowledge but the quality of our experience living together in a common world.
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Poststructuralism represents a set of attitudes and a style of critique that developed in critical response to the growth and identification of the logic of structural relations that underlie social institutions—whether they exist in... more
Poststructuralism represents a set of attitudes and a style of critique that developed in critical response to the growth and identification of the logic of structural relations that underlie social institutions—whether they exist in terms of politics, economics, education, medicine, literature, or the sciences. Poststructuralism should therefore not be thought of as a distinct philosophy that exists separately as its own “structure”—a proposition that would undermine its most fundamental attitudes. Rather, poststructuralism should be thought of as developing or arising only in response to pre-existing structures and, as a set of attitudes, helping us better understand, interpret, and alter our social environment by calling established meanings into question, revealing the points of ambiguity and indeterminacy inherent in any system, rejecting the rationalistic piety that all systems are internally coherent and circle around an unchanging center, showing how discourses are carriers of power capable of turning us into subjects, and placing upon us the burden of ethical responsibility that accompanies the acceptance of freedom.
Although poststructuralism by its very nature as a set of attitudes denies any attempt at comprehensive definition, this essay examines three of the major postructuralist thinkers in order to relate their thought to the study of communication. First, following Derrida, poststructuralist thought invites a critical deconstruction of any discourse that presents itself as completely coherent, centered, and rational. Poststructuralist approaches thus do not argue against a position by harnessing counterarguments drawing on a different set of principles. Rather, it deconstructs a discourse by occupying it and exposing the gaps, contradictions, paradoxes, and deferments, thus revealing its established hierarchies, binaries, logical conclusions, and principles to be far more loosely structured and poly-vocal than its advocates wish to present them. Second, following Barthes, poststructuralism refuses to locate any single point of origin of any text that can ground its meaning—particularly by pointing to some ground of the author. Although not denying that writers exist, Barthes refuses to identify the meaning of a text with the author’s biography and intentions, instead inviting multiple interpretations from the perspective of individual readers who encounter the text as a unique event. Therefore, just as discourses do not have a unified structure, neither do individual texts or the authors that produce them. Lastly, following Fouacult, poststructuralism invites an inquiry into how discourses, texts, and acts of communication are always implicated in relations of power that act upon possible actions. Following the first two propositions, poststructuralism does not analyze these relations of power as completely structured and determinate, however. Power relations are always within a dynamic relationship with acts of resistance, thereby constantly leaving space for freedom and possibility.
Although poststructuralism by its very nature as a set of attitudes denies any attempt at comprehensive definition, this essay examines three of the major postructuralist thinkers in order to relate their thought to the study of communication. First, following Derrida, poststructuralist thought invites a critical deconstruction of any discourse that presents itself as completely coherent, centered, and rational. Poststructuralist approaches thus do not argue against a position by harnessing counterarguments drawing on a different set of principles. Rather, it deconstructs a discourse by occupying it and exposing the gaps, contradictions, paradoxes, and deferments, thus revealing its established hierarchies, binaries, logical conclusions, and principles to be far more loosely structured and poly-vocal than its advocates wish to present them. Second, following Barthes, poststructuralism refuses to locate any single point of origin of any text that can ground its meaning—particularly by pointing to some ground of the author. Although not denying that writers exist, Barthes refuses to identify the meaning of a text with the author’s biography and intentions, instead inviting multiple interpretations from the perspective of individual readers who encounter the text as a unique event. Therefore, just as discourses do not have a unified structure, neither do individual texts or the authors that produce them. Lastly, following Fouacult, poststructuralism invites an inquiry into how discourses, texts, and acts of communication are always implicated in relations of power that act upon possible actions. Following the first two propositions, poststructuralism does not analyze these relations of power as completely structured and determinate, however. Power relations are always within a dynamic relationship with acts of resistance, thereby constantly leaving space for freedom and possibility.
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Aesthetics in communication represents the art of manipulating symbolic forms in such a way that it produces pleasure and pain through the manipulation of appearances and, at its most eloquent, conveys a sense of beauty that opens up a... more
Aesthetics in communication represents the art of manipulating symbolic forms in such a way that it produces pleasure and pain through the manipulation of appearances and, at its most eloquent, conveys a sense of beauty that opens up a sphere of the possible. One can trace, however, three different ways of approaching the relationship between communication and aesthetics. First, aesthetics can be seen as the science of the senses. Second, aesthetics can be seen as the cultivation and communication of taste. And, third, aesthetics can be seen as the study and employment of form. The present entry explains these three perspectives on aesthetics by showing their origins in classical Greece, in the figures of Gorgias, Plato, and Aristotle.