Landmark Essays on Rhetoric of Science: Case Studies: Volume 11 (Landmark Essays Series) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1880393115 ISBN 13: 9781880393116

Publisher: Routledge, 1997

Synopsis

Rhetoric of science is the study of how scientists persuade and dissuade each other and the rest of us about nature -- the study of how scientists argue in the making of knowledge. In fragmented form, it goes back as long as the two fields have existed, and it makes various appearances throughout the history of each.

The studies in this volume are exemplars for rhetoric of science. They chart the field, exhibiting the governing themes of rhetorical criticism when its eye turns to science -- suasive greatness, paradigmatic debates, public policy concerns, and composition issues. Starting at the top, the papers take as their main courses the two disciplines highest in the scientific food chain -- physics and biology -- with side orders of archaeology and experimental psychology. They employ a methodological tool-set largely inherited from Aristotle, but also draw pluralistically on related enterprises, such as pragmatics, ethology, and literary criticism. Engaging the ruling theoretical issues of the field, these studies are landmarks that define the field.

About this title

Review

...a reader-friendly collection that covers the basics of how science gets written....investigates some of the most prominent and difficult cases of science presented for rhetorical purposes--to persuade....If the scientist in question is attempting to introduce new evidence, what will it take to persuade other scientists of its validity? Or is any science, any experimentation, or system of validity an attempt to persuade any public, scientific or popular, to believe in a model of reality? What makes this collection vital is that it addresses these questions through specific, landmark cases and, in the process, reveals the impact of having asked them.
—Technical Communication

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1880393115
• ISBN 13: 9781880393116
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Harris Randy Allen