From Metaphysics to Rhetoric

From Metaphysics to Rhetoric PDF Author: Michel Meyer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 940092593X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
by the question in its being an answer, if only in a circumstantial (i. e. inessential) manner. One indeed must question oneself in order to remember, says Plato, but the dialectic, which would be scientific, must be something else even if it remains a play of question and answer. This contradiction did not escape Aristotle: he split the scientific from the dialectic and logic from argumentation whose respective theories he was led to conceive in order to clearly define their boundaries and specificities. As for Plato, he found in the famous theory of Ideas what he sought in order to justify knowledge as that which is supposed to hold its truth only from itself. What do Ideas mean within the framework of our approach? In what consists the passage from rhetoric to ontology which leads to the denaturation of argumentation? When Socrates asked, for example, "What is virtue?", he thought one could not answer such a question because the answer refers to a single proposition, a single truth, whereas the formulation of the question itself does not indicate this unicity. For any answer, another can be given and thus continuously, if necessary, until eventually one will come across an incompatibility. Now, to a question as to what X, Y, or Z is, one can answer in many ways and nothing in the question itself prohibits multiplicity. Virtue is courage, is justice, and so on.

From Metaphysics to Rhetoric

From Metaphysics to Rhetoric PDF Author: Michel Meyer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 940092593X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 197

Get Book

Book Description
by the question in its being an answer, if only in a circumstantial (i. e. inessential) manner. One indeed must question oneself in order to remember, says Plato, but the dialectic, which would be scientific, must be something else even if it remains a play of question and answer. This contradiction did not escape Aristotle: he split the scientific from the dialectic and logic from argumentation whose respective theories he was led to conceive in order to clearly define their boundaries and specificities. As for Plato, he found in the famous theory of Ideas what he sought in order to justify knowledge as that which is supposed to hold its truth only from itself. What do Ideas mean within the framework of our approach? In what consists the passage from rhetoric to ontology which leads to the denaturation of argumentation? When Socrates asked, for example, "What is virtue?", he thought one could not answer such a question because the answer refers to a single proposition, a single truth, whereas the formulation of the question itself does not indicate this unicity. For any answer, another can be given and thus continuously, if necessary, until eventually one will come across an incompatibility. Now, to a question as to what X, Y, or Z is, one can answer in many ways and nothing in the question itself prohibits multiplicity. Virtue is courage, is justice, and so on.

Metaphysics as Rhetoric

Metaphysics as Rhetoric PDF Author: Joshua Parens
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438415494
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The most widely accepted view in the West today, particularly among postmodernists, is that Plato attempted to ground politics on a rational metaphysics and initiated the tradition of foundationalism that has given rise to systems of oppression ranging from racism, sexism, and ethnocentrism to the technological mastery of the earth. Metaphysics as Rhetoric controverts this view, arguing that Plato was not the originator of this metaphysical tradition. Using as a basis the tenth-century Muslim philosopher Alfarabi's interpretation of Plato, especially his Summary of Plato's "Laws", Parens shows that what appears to be Plato's metaphysics was intended as a rhetorical defense of his politics. Parens demonstrates that rather than seek to establish politics on the definitive metaphysical ground, Alfarabi's Plato analyzes politics on its own terms, phenomenologically.

Treatise on Rhetoric

Treatise on Rhetoric PDF Author: Aristotle
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Rhetoric, Ancient
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Cult of the Kill

Cult of the Kill PDF Author: Gregory E. Desilet
Publisher: Gregory Desilet
ISBN: 1401063470
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
Subscribing to the view that language is for humans much like water is for fish, this text underscores the importance of implicit understandings language users have of how language works. The work of Kenneth Burke focuses maximum attention on the problem of scapegoating and its deeply embedded motivational resources in language--resources Burke finds sufficiently potent and pervasive to disseminate across cultures what he refers to as a "Cult of the Kill." Burke's concerns with the problem of scapegoating and its links with "the negative" as an essential feature of language are found to overlap and contrast in significant ways with the work of Martin Heidegger and with postmodern, especially deconstructive, insights. By way of conclusion, the text addresses criticisms of deconstruction and sets forth, through a comparison of the views of Jacques Derrida and rhetorical theorist John Macksoud, a concise account of the "laws" and parameters of a postmodern understanding of language offering an inclusive strategy of evaluation.

The Rhetorical Sense of Philosophy

The Rhetorical Sense of Philosophy PDF Author: Donald Phillip Verene
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501756354
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
Philosophy and rhetoric are both old enemies and old friends. In The Rhetorical Sense of Philosophy, Donald Phillip Verene sets out to shift our understanding of the relationship between philosophy and rhetoric from that of separation to one of close association. He outlines how ancient rhetors focused on the impact of language regardless of truth, ancient philosophers utilized language to test truth; and ultimately, this separation of right reasoning from rhetoric has remained intact throughout history. It is time, Verene argues, to reassess this ancient and misunderstood relationship. Verene traces his argument utilizing the writing of ancient and modern authors from Plato and Aristotle to Descartes and Kant; he also explores the quarrel between philosophy and poetry, as well as the nature of speculative philosophy. Verene's argument culminates in a unique analysis of the frontispiece as a rhetorical device in the works of Hobbes, Vico, and Rousseau. Verene bridges the stubborn gap between these two fields, arguing that rhetorical speech both brings philosophical speech into existence and allows it to endure and be understood. The Rhetorical Sense of Philosophy depicts the inevitable intersection between philosophy and rhetoric, powerfully illuminating how a rhetorical sense of philosophy is an attitude of mind that does not separate philosophy from its own use of language.

Rhetoric as Philosophy

Rhetoric as Philosophy PDF Author: Ernesto Grassi
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 9780809323630
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
By going back to the Italian humanist tradition and aspects of earlier Greek and Latin thought, Ernesto Grassi develops a conception of rhetoric as the basis of philosophy. Grassi explores the sense in which the first principles of rational thought come from the metaphorical power of the word. He finds the basis for his conception in the last great thinker of the Italian humanist tradition, Giambattista Vico (1668-1744). He concentrates on Vico's understanding of imagination and the sense of human ingenuity contained in metaphor. For Grassi, rhetorical activity is the essence and inner life of thought when connected to the metaphorical power of the word. Originally published in English in 1980, Rhetoric as Philosophy has been out of print for some time. In his foreword to this reprint edition, Burke scholar Timothy W. Crusius rues the lack of concentrated attention to Grassi because "what he had to say about rhetoric is at least as significant as, for example, what Kenneth Burke taught us".

Kant and the Promise of Rhetoric

Kant and the Promise of Rhetoric PDF Author: Scott R. Stroud
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271061111
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Immanuel Kant is rarely connected to rhetoric by those who study philosophy or the rhetorical tradition. If anything, Kant is said to see rhetoric as mere manipulation and as not worthy of attention. In Kant and the Promise of Rhetoric, Scott Stroud presents a first-of-its-kind reappraisal of Kant and the role he gives rhetorical practices in his philosophy. By examining the range of terms that Kant employs to discuss various forms of communication, Stroud argues that the general thesis that Kant disparaged rhetoric is untenable. Instead, he offers a more nuanced view of Kant on rhetoric and its relation to moral cultivation. For Kant, certain rhetorical practices in education, religious settings, and public argument become vital tools to move humans toward moral improvement without infringing on their individual autonomy. Through the use of rhetorical means such as examples, religious narratives, symbols, group prayer, and fallibilistic public argument, individuals can persuade other agents to move toward more cultivated states of inner and outer autonomy. For the Kant recovered in this book, rhetoric becomes another part of human activity that can be animated by the value of humanity, and it can serve as a powerful tool to convince agents to embark on the arduous task of moral self-cultivation.

Seeming & Being in Plato’s Rhetorical Theory

Seeming & Being in Plato’s Rhetorical Theory PDF Author: Robin Reames
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022656715X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
The widespread understanding of language in the West is that it represents the world. This view, however, has not always been commonplace. In fact, it is a theory of language conceived by Plato, culminating in The Sophist. In that dialogue Plato introduced the idea of statements as being either true or false, where the distinction between falsity and truth rests on a deeper discrepancy between appearance and reality, or seeming and being. Robin Reames’s Seeming & Being in Plato’s Rhetorical Theory marks a shift in Plato scholarship. Reames argues that an appropriate understanding of rhetorical theory in Plato’s dialogues illuminates how he developed the technical vocabulary needed to construct the very distinctions between seeming and being that separate true from false speech. By engaging with three key movements of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Plato scholarship—the rise and subsequent marginalization of “orality and literacy theory,” Heidegger’s controversial critique of Platonist metaphysics, and the influence of literary or dramatic readings of the dialogues—Reames demonstrates how the development of Plato’s rhetorical theory across several of his dialogues (Gorgias, Phaedrus, Protagoras, Theaetetus, Cratylus, Republic, and Sophist) has been both neglected and misunderstood.

The Rhetoric of Aristotle

The Rhetoric of Aristotle PDF Author: Aristotle
Publisher: Legare Street Press
ISBN: 9781017068344
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

ARISTOTLE: RHETORIC

ARISTOTLE: RHETORIC PDF Author: Aristotle
Publisher: Lebooks Editora
ISBN: 6558943638
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Aristotle (384 BC–322 BC) was an important Greek philosopher. One of the most influential thinkers in Western culture, he was a disciple of the philosopher Plato. Aristotle developed an entire philosophical system in which he pondered on virtually all existing subjects, such as geometry, physics, metaphysics, botany, zoology, astronomy, medicine, psychology, ethics, drama, poetry, rhetoric, mathematics, and logic. Being one of the oldest and most truly international human disciplines, Rhetoric, like grammar, logic, and poetics, is not an a priori science. The great philosopher Aristotle was one of the first thinkers to study and elaborate on the foundations of Rhetoric, and this homonymous work systematically and deeply encompasses this theme. Rhetoric is a form of communication, a discipline that deals with the principles and techniques of communication. Not all communication, but that which has persuasive purposes. Aristotle's Rhetoric is not the product of the mere idealization of principles born with him and by him, agreed upon to persuade and convince others. It is, instead, the product of the consummated experience of skillful orators, the elaboration resulting from the analysis of their strategies, the codification of precepts born from experience with the aim of helping others to exercise correctly in the techniques of persuasion.