The rhetoric of reason : writing and the attractions of agrument / James Crosswhite.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Crosswhite, James.

Series:

Rhetoric of the human sciences.

Rhetoric of the Human Sciences

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Reasoning.

Logic.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 329 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wis. ; London : University of Wisconsin Press, 1996.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Responding to skeptics within higher education and critics without, James Crosswhite argues powerfully that the core of a college education should be learning to write a reasoned argument. A trained philosopher and director of a university-wide composition program, Crosswhite challenges his readers-teachers of writing and communication, philosophers, critical theorists, and educational administrators-to reestablish the traditional role of rhetoric in education. To those who have lost faith in the abilities of people to reach reasoned mutual agreements, and to others who have attacked the right-or-wrong model of formal logic, this book offers the reminder that the rhetorical tradition has always viewed argumentation as a dialogue, a response to changing situations, an exchange of persuading, listening, and understanding. Crosswhite's aim is to give new purpose to writing instruction and to students' writing, to reinvest both with the deep ethical interests of the rhetorical tradition. In laying out the elements of argumentation, for example, he shows that claiming, questioning, and giving reasons are not simple elements of formal logic, but communicative acts with complicated ethical features. Students must learn not only how to construct an argument, but the purposes, responsibilities, and consequences of engaging in one. Crosswhite supports his aims through a rhetorical reconstruction of reason, offering new interpretations of Plato and Aristotle and of the concepts of reflection and dialogue from early modernity through Hegel to Gadamer. And, in his conclusion, he ties these theoretical and historical underpinnings to current problems of higher education, the definition of the liberal arts, and, especially, the teaching of written communication.

Contents:

""Contents""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Introduction""; ""Part One: Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Argumentation""; ""Chapter 1. The End of Philosophy and the Resurgence of Rhetoric""; ""The Aims of a Rhetoric of Reason""; ""The Philosophical Context""; ""After Philosophy: Rhetoric""; ""Teaching after Philosophy""; ""Argument: The Traditional Theory and Its Problems""; ""Part Two: Reconstructing Argumentation""; ""Chapter 2. Claiming""; ""Argument as Dialogue""; ""What Is a Claim?""; ""Jürgen Habermas and Validity Claims""; ""Claims as Invitations""; ""Other Approaches to Claiming""

""The Claimant and Reasons"" ""Summary""; ""Chapter 3. Questioning""; ""Whose Question?""; ""The Respondent as Questioner""; ""The Respondent as Interlocutor""; ""Responses and Questions""; ""Chapter 4. Argument and Conflict""; ""Argument as Conflict""; ""The Problem of Epideictic""; ""Ways of Conflict""; ""The Parties to Conflict""; ""The Focus of Conflict""; ""The Intensity of Conflict""; ""The Level of Conflict""; ""The Means of Conflict""; ""The Purpose of Conflict""; ""Objections and Clarifications""; ""Conclusion: Back to Teaching""; ""Part Three: Evaluating Arguments ""

""Chapter 5. Audiences and Arguments"" ""Introduction""; ""The Concept of Audience""; ""Kinds of Audience""; ""A Basic Problem with the Approach""; ""How to Construct a Universal Audience""; ""The Uses of Universal Audiences""; ""Living Universality""; ""Beyond Universality""; ""Transversal and Universal""; ""The Rhetoric of Logic""; ""Chapter 6. Being Unreasonable: A Rhetoric of Fallacies""; ""Rhetoric and Philosophy""; ""The Basic Problem and the New Theory""; ""Conclusion""; ""Chapter 7. Argument and Ideology: Evaluating Argumentation""; ""The Ideology of Argumentation""

""The Limits of Argumentation"" ""Argumentation and Gender""; ""Argumentation and Multiculturalism""; ""Part Four: Argument, Inquiry, and Education""; ""Chapter 8. Argument as Inquiry""; ""The Idea of Inquiry""; ""Two Kinds of Reasoning: Some Historical Angles""; ""Argument and Inquiry""; ""Context of Discovery/Context of Justification: Redrawing the Lines""; ""Inquiry and Persuasion""; ""Conflict and Discovery""; ""Chapter 9. Rhetoric, Ethics, and the Aims of Higher Education""; ""Notes""; ""References""; ""Index""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from title page (ebrary, viewed May 28, 2013).

ISBN:

9780299149536

0299149536

OCLC:

927484449