The Rhetorical Turn Invention and Persuasion in the Conduct of Inquiry

Herbert W. Simons

ISBN 10: 0226759024 / ISBN 13: 9780226759029

Published by University of Chicago Press, 1990

About this Item

Seller Inventory # E-9780226759029-2-2

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Rhetorical Turn Invention and Persuasion in the Conduct of Inquiry
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication Date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226759024
• ISBN 13: 9780226759029
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very good

About this title

Synopsis

We have only recently started to challenge the notion that "serious" inquiry can be free of rhetoric, that it can rely exclusively on "hard" fact and "cold" logic in support of its claims. Increasingly, scholars are shifting their attention from methods of proof to the heuristic methods of debate and discussion—the art of rhetoric—to examine how scholarly discourse is shaped by tropes and figures, by the naming and framing of issues, and by the need to adapt arguments to ends, audiences, and circumstances. Herbert W. Simons and the contributors to this important collection of essays provide impressive evidence that the new movement referred to as the rhetorical turn offers a rigorous way to look within and across the disciplines.

The Rhetorical Turn moves from biology to politics via excursions into the rhetorics of psychoanalysis, decision science, and conversational analysis. Topics explored include how rhetorical invention guides scientific invention, how rhetoric assists political judgment, and how it integrates varying approaches to meta-theory. Concluding with four philosophical essays, this volume of case studies demonstrates how the inventive and persuasive dimensions of scholarly discourse point the way to forms of argument appropriate to our postmodern age.

About the Author

Herbert W. Simons is professor of rhetoric and communication at Temple University. He is the author of Persuasion: Understanding, Practice, and Analysis and the editor of numerous books, including Rhetoric in the Human Sciences and The Legacy of Kenneth Burke.