Perelman S New Rhetoric As Philosophy And Methodology For The Next Century

Both Perelman's collaborators, Professors Haarscher and Ingber, shared with me their deep personal insights about origins, birth and phases of the develop ment of the New Rhetoric. Without their good will, advice and creative com ments, my personal knowledge would have been narrower. I am grateful to the Chaim Perelman Foundation for their grant which enabled me to cover my expenses of collecting materials, editing and preparing the manuscript. Professor Michel Meyer was very instrumental in the negotiations with the publisher. Mr. Raphael Lipski, treasurer of the Perelman Foundation, spent many hours with me, and shared his remembrances of Perelman's personality, his social and political activity. lowe special thanks to Dr. Richard Kramer, whose friendship I cherish for a quarter of a century. He read and edited not only the entire text of the book, but he offered many critical remarks and constructive suggestions which helped me to revise my own ideas and to formulate them more clearly and precisely. The first critical reader and editor was as usual Mrs. Elizabeth Previti. Professor Elzbieta Ettinger-Chodakowska, MIT, read this entire manuscript and shared with me her impressions. lowe special gratitude to my dear friend, Mrs. Stephanie Silvers for her steady help and moral support. Needless to say, I am solely responsible for all the deficiencies of this book.

This book presents the New Theory of Argumentation, popularly known as the New Rhetoric, as an innovative theoretical and methodological system which will become increasingly important. Two factors determine the importance of this philosophy: (1) The collapse of all modern ideologies, many sociopolitical systems and their associated philosophies, whether of the right or the left, means that the era of the quick, dogmatic perception of how to force people to feel free and happy is over. (2) New forms and institutions of social and economic life must be found among the wreckage. The solutions sought must work best for the greatest number of people and must be flexible enough to allow the reinterpretation of all our determinations, from the very beginning. The New Rhetoric rejects all absolutist and dogmatic ideas. But neither does it support absolute relativism. It constitutes a method for the endless search for truthful explanations and for enlightened practical activity. Truth is only the process of approaching it. While critical of formal logic, the New Rhetoric develops the concepts of other', experimental', flexible', and logic of good sense'. The introduction and elaboration of the concept of reasonableness' is presented as a milestone in the evolution of scientific methodology. The New Rhetoric has overcome the traditional contradictions between logic, rationalism and dialectic and has laid new foundations for a modern theory of morality, law, legal interpretation, and human rights. This book discusses such problems as: new moral notions, the new dilemma of Cain, the spurious notions of 'centrism', Antigone's new arguments, 'argumentation is not bargaining', new foundations of tolerance and justice. It ends with a section on 'Resolutions for the New Century', written in the spirit of traditional enlightenment, rule of reason and humanism, but which goes beyond them.

The work of Chaim Perelman must be regarded as crucially influential in the 20th century restoration of rhetoric to its rightful place in the intellectual tradition of Western culture. In Perelman's masterly elaboration of 'New Rhetoric, ' the ancient art becomes again a respected Chapter of the method of learning and resumes its role of vital relevance to the human condition. The growing importance of Perelman's thought in recent years, particularly to the fields of philosophy, ethics, communication, and law suggests the need for this collection. It crystallizes Perelman's rhetorical thought in his own writings and presents representative responses to his New Rhetoric from scholars in rhetoric and communication. Contents: include: Perelman's Philosophical Perspective, Carlin Romano and Ray D. Dearin; Perelman's Contributions to Rhetorical Thought; Critical Responses to the 'New Rhetoric, ' Karl R. Wallace, J. Robert Cox, Lisa S. Ede, Allen Scult, Louise A. Karon, Jam Measell, Don Abbot, Ray D. Dearin, Ralph T. Eubanks; Appendix: The New Rhetoric and the Rhetoricians, Chaim Perelma

This book offers a unique overview of the development of rhetorical criticism both in North America and internationally through the work of pioneering New Testament scholar Thomas H. Olbricht. Lauri Thurén has gathered nineteen of Olbricht's essays as a guidebook to rhetorical criticism for students, clergy, and scholars. The range of essays from throughout Olbricht's career illuminate the history of rhetorical criticism and reflect the different motivations of ancient and contemporary rhetorical approaches. Essays focus on the history of biblical rhetorical analysis, the rhetorical analysis of biblical texts, the characteristics of rhetorical analysis, and types of biblical rhetorical criticism. A foreword by Thurén and a memorial essay by Carl R. Holladay contextualize Olbricht's work. Anyone interested in the rhetorical study of the New Testament will find this volume inspiring and informative.

This book is an updated and revised edition of Fundamentals of Legal Argumentation published in 1999. It discusses new developments that have taken place in the past 15 years in research of legal argumentation, legal justification and legal interpretation, as well as the implications of these new developments for the theory of legal argumentation. Almost every chapter has been revised and updated, and the chapters include discussions of recent studies, major additions on topical issues, new perspectives, and new developments in several theoretical areas. Examples of these additions are discussions of recent developments in such areas as Habermas' theory, MacCormick's theory, Alexy's theory, Artificial Intelligence and law, and the pragma-dialectical theory of legal argumentation. Furthermore it provides an extensive and systematic overview of approaches and studies of legal argumentation in the context of legal justification in various legal systems and countries that have been important for the development of research of legal argumentation. The book contains a discussion of influential theories that conceive the law and legal justification as argumentative activity. From different disciplinary and theoretical angles it addresses such topics as the institutional characteristics of the law and the relation between general standards for moral discussions and legal standards such as the Rule of Law. It discusses patterns of legal justification in the context of different types of problems in the application of the law and it describes rules for rational legal discussions. The combination of the sound basis of the first edition and the discussions of new developments make this new edition an up-to-date and comprehensive survey of the various theoretical influences which have informed the study of legal argumentation. It discusses salient backgrounds to this field as well as major approaches and trends in the contemporary research. It surveys the relevant theoretical factors both from various continental law traditions and common law countries.

“Rhetoric is the counterpart of logic,” claimed Aristotle. “Rhetoric is the first part of logic rightly understood,” Martin Heidegger concurred. “Rhetoric is the universal form of human communication,” opined Hans-Georg Gadamer. But in Deep Rhetoric, James Crosswhite offers a groundbreaking new conception of rhetoric, one that builds a definitive case for an understanding of the discipline as a philosophical enterprise beyond basic argumentation and is fully conversant with the advances of the New Rhetoric of Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca. Chapter by chapter, Deep Rhetoric develops an understanding of rhetoric not only in its philosophical dimension but also as a means of guiding and conducting conflicts, achieving justice, and understanding the human condition. Along the way, Crosswhite restores the traditional dignity and importance of the discipline and illuminates the twentieth-century resurgence of rhetoric among philosophers, as well as the role that rhetoric can play in future discussions of ontology, epistemology, and ethics. At a time when the fields of philosophy and rhetoric have diverged, Crosswhite returns them to their common moorings and shows us an invigorating new way forward.

Modern logic has Wldergone some remarkable developments in the last hun dred years. These have contributed to the extraordinary use of formal logic which has become essentially the concern of mathematicians. This has led to attempts to identify logic with formal logic. The claim has even been made that all non-formal reasoning, to the extent that it cannot be formalized, no longer belongs to logic. This conception leads to a genuine impoverishment of logic as well as to a narrow conception of reason. It means that as soon as demonstrative proofs are no longer available reason will no longer dominate. Even the idea of the 'reasonable' becomes foreign to logic and such expres sions as 'reasonable decisions', 'reasonable choice' or 'reasonable hypotheses' would be put aside as meaningless. The domain of action, including method ology and everything that is given over to deliberation or controversy - i.e., foreign to formal logic - would become a battleground where necessarily the reason of the strongest would always prevail.

Publisher Description