Showing papers in "Philosophy and Rhetoric in 1996"

Practical Reasoning and the Structure of Fear Appeal Arguments

Abstract: There is considerable interest in fear appeal arguments in both the normative (logicai) and the empirical (psychological) literature on argumentation. However, these two streams are, so far, relatively independent of each other. In this paper, an attempt is made to join them together, or at least to open up a canal between them.1 Fear appeal arguments are studied in logic under the category of argumentum ad baculum, a species of informai fallacy (although there has been some doubt expressed whether they really belong here, as we will see below). In speech communication, fear appeal arguments hâve been studied to determine their efficacy in getting a target group of respondents to adopt a recommended course of action. Primarily, commercial advertisements directed to a public audience hâve been the focus.

Three Disappearing Ladders in Plato

Abstract: Analyse de l'auto-effacement des doctrines de la purification, de la dialectique et de l'eros, definies comme echelons vers la sagesse, dans les dialogues de Platon. Rejetant la linearite verticale de l'idee d'echelon, l'A. montre que leur disparition manifeste les poles positif et negatif de la rhetorique platonicienne

Being and becoming : Rhetorical oncology in early greek thought

Abstract: Etude de la pensee grecque pre-platonicienne ou l'ontologie et la rhetorique forment un ensemble coherent pour sauver les phenomenes et le langage. L'A. montre que l'opposition ne reside pas (encore) entre la philosophie et la sophistique en tant que disciplines separees, mais entre les ecoles philosophiques de l'etre (Xenophane, Parmenide, Zenon, Gorgias) et les ecoles philosophiques du devenir (Heraclite, Prtagoras, Cratyle)

Dialectic, dialogue, and transformation of the self

Abstract: L'A. defend la these selon laquelle la theorie de la reponse developpee par W. Iser permet de resoudre la double problematique de la dialectique de Socrate et des dialogues de Platon. A partir d'une description phenomenologique de la lecture du «Menon», l'A. etudie la dimension morale de la dialectique, du dialogue et de l'acte de lire qui designe la transformation de soi

Rhetoric's Revenge: The Prospect of a Critical Legal Rhetoric

Abstract: Philosophical debates over the nature, source, scope, and function of the law date back at least to the ancient squabbles between the Platonists and the Sophists. Platonists saw law through an objectivist lens that idealized the universal, eternai, and immutable while the Sophists claimed that legal principles were forged in the fires of particular contro versies and were therefore culturally relative.1 Over time each perspective has attracted adherents and revisionists, and we now hâve a variety of jurisprudential paradigms that continue the disputes of the Platonists and the Sophists. The contemporary forms of these arguments range from "naturai law" theories to the deconstructive leanings of the Criticai Legal Studies (CLS) move ment.2 Readers of theoretical discussions are asked to see law as a set of "core" principles, standards, and precedents that represents the consensus of a society, or to see it as a collection of ad hoc arguments used to protect unequal distributions of wealth.3 The first narrative the legal rationalistic paradigm looks for codes and other devices to help us see the rules and standards that undergird the law. The second story suggests that law is a facade and that human beings engage in acts of futility when they attempt to create Systems of governance to place constitutional limits on the powers of Citizens and elites.

Resolving Hobbes's metaphorical contradiction : The role of the image in the language of politics

Abstract: L'A. etudie la contradiction entre la critique hobbesienne de l'usage de la metaphore dans le discours scientifique et politique, d'une part, et la prose metaphorique du «Leviathan» illustrant sa conception du raisonnement geometrique, d'autre part. L'A. propose de resoudre ce paradoxe en developpant l'idee fondamentale chez Hobbes de la centralite des images et des conceptions

It's not what you say, it's that you say it : Speech, performance, and sense in Austin and Deleuze

Abstract: In How to Do Things with Words (1972), John Austin explores the notions of both locutionary acts and illocutionary acts through the thematic of performance. These notions of speech acts roughly conform to Deleuze's distinctions between designation, manifestation, and signification outlined in The Logic of Sense (1989). However, it is important to note that Deleuze explores a fourth linguistic element, sense, which creâtes a complex dimension in language. It is through this concept of sense that I will explore both Austin's and Deleuze's understandings of the linguistic dimensions of speech acts. It is my contention that the Deleuzian notion of sense, used as a thematic in the understanding of speech acts, provides a more satisfactory understanding of speech acts than Austin's theory alone. Further, given recent discussions of the characteristics of speech acts and their deconstructive potential, I argue that Deleuze's notion of sense provides justification for division between constatives and perf ormati ves.1

Plato, rhetoric, and silence

Abstract: Analyse de l'effet philosophique des pratiques rhetoriques developpees par Platon dans ses dialogues tardifs. Examinant la fonction dialectique des silences de Socrate dans le «Politique», l'A. souligne la nature polyphonique des dialogues contre l'interpretation monologique traditionnelle de Platon

On new systems of rhetoric

Abstract: En vertu du caractere evolutionniste de l'etude de la rhetorique determine par D. Ehninger, l'A. souligne la necessite de substituer a la classification des systemes rhetoriques etablie par Ehninger un nouveau systeme epistemologique, ou non seulement le langage apparait a la base de la connaissance humaine, mais s'avere necessaire a la creation meme de la societe

Emerson, disclosure, and the experiencing-self

Abstract: L'A. propose une definition de la theorie rhetorique de la verite developpee par Emerson, fondee sur l'idee de devoilement (disclosure) d'une signification future. Emerson concoit le soi experimentant a partir d'une deconstruction du discours des interpretations publiques et un effort de reconstruction de la realite par l'intellect

Knowledge that the mind seeks : The epistemic impact of Plato's form of discourse

Abstract: L'A. defend la these selon laquelle la conception platonicienne de la connaissance philosophique, fondee sur le caractere non-propositionnel de la connaissance pratique, intuitive et dialectique, est liee de facon systematique a sa forme de representation litteraire: le dialogue

John Locke's rhetoric : Response to the nominal quandaries of legitimate communities

Abstract: L'A. defend la these selon laquelle la demonstration faite par Locke des forces linguistiques qui agissent contre l'individu qui aspire a penser est digne d'interet pour les constructionnistes. L'A. etudie les raisons de Locke pour contrebalancer le pouvoir des processus linguistiques de la declaration liberaliste des droits, et reexamine la question de l'exercice des droits dans le contexte des processus consensuels