Overview

This book aims to recast the way that philosophers understand rhetoric. Rather than follow most philosophers in conceiving rhetoric as a specific way of speaking or writing, it shows that rhetoric is better understood as a dimension of all human discourse and action—what the author calls “rhetoricity”. This book provides the first philosophical treatment of rhetoricity. It is motivated by two ongoing developments. The first is the debate between Alain Badiou and Barbara Cassin about philosophy’s relation to rhetoric. Both Badiou and Cassin are critical of rhetoric, albeit for different reasons. Second, there has been a growing resurgence of interest in rhetoric considering the recent rise in authoritarian politics as well as new forms of propaganda driven by “persuasive technologies”. This book identifies the common target of Badiou’s and Cassin’s otherwise incompatible critiques: rhetoric’s conception of audience. It offers a fresh take on the “new rhetoric” project of Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, putting their work into conversation with the Badiou-Cassin debate. The book then turns to the hermeneutic philosophy of Paul Ricoeur in search of an expanded conception of audience. It shows that Ricoeur’s hermeneutic philosophy allows us to extend Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca’s psychological notion of audience to texts themselves and to argue that human beings have a rhetorical capacity to reflect on audiences in search of what is potentially persuasive. The Rhetoricity of Philosophy will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in contemporary European philosophy, rhetoric, argumentation studies, and social theory.

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9781032684871

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Reviews

“This is a book that needed to be written at this particular moment in the development of the relationship between philosophy and rhetoric in the twenty-first century. It puts in conversation four key thinkers in those fields who have not been dealt with together in such detail and with such insight. Its argument that an expanded notion of rhetorical audience will prove fruitful for contemporary philosophy is persuasively presented and should provoke productive discussion within philosophy and between philosophers and rhetoricians.” Steven Mailloux, Loyola Marymount University, USA “The Rhetoricity of Philosophy is significant for philosophy and rhetoric alike, but not simply because it uncovers rhetoric as the point of commonality in the Cassin-Badiou debate, nor because it discerns the limitations of the conceptions of rhetoric in both Perelman’s New Rhetoric Project and Ricoeur’s hermeneutics. Instead, and more importantly, by offering an expanded notion of audience, Blake Scott elegantly demonstrates rhetoricity as inherent to human discourse and action, and thereby provides a guide for how philosophical practice may respond effectively to polarized discourses on contemporary social issues.” Michelle Bolduc, University of Exeter, UK

Author Information

Blake D. Scott is Postdoctoral Research Associate at KU Leuven’s Institute of Philosophy. His articles have appeared in journals including Philosophy & Rhetoric, Informal Logic, Argumentation, Études Ricoeuriennes/ Ricoeur Studies, Analecta Hermeneutica, and Sartre Studies International.

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