The Rhetoric Of Intention In Human Affairs

The Rhetoric of Intention in Human Affairs is an insightful account of the rhetorical and psychological habits we exhibit when we must explain the reasons others act. The assumption that we can know what motivates another person is fed by more hope than certainty, and yet it is evidence of a very human impulse. Beginning with a clear template for defining various tiers of motives-talk, this innovative and accessible study moves through a series of chapters exploring the unique demands imposed by different circumstances. These sections cut a wide swath of analysis across a diverse range of human actors including: conspiracy theorists who find the designs of coordinated agents behind random events, theater performers creating “backstories” for their characters, journalists grasping to name the motives of newsmakers, prosecutors who must establish another’s intent in order to prove a criminal act, and the devout who grapple with what divine intervention can mean in a cruel world. Readers will recognize themselves in these pages, gaining an appreciation for the rhetorical analysis of human behavior.

This book explores early new critical debates about intention, tracing how and why intention was dismissed across much humanities scholarship, and how it can be revisited and made relevant as a key formative, evaluative, and ethical concept. The author argues that the academic disinterest in intention occurred simultaneously as genre criticism and later the rhetorical interest in genre came into its own. Genre became a way to simultaneously elide and naturalize intention. The book elaborates on the pedagogical, ethical, and empirical consequences naturalizing intention through genre has had for rhetorical studies and it offers a new term, “curations” to identify discursive forms, actions, and intentions working simultaneously. Finally, he also examines the gap between the humanities and STEM fields and shows specific ways scientists and engineers have called for the humanities to become more invested in intention as both a critical and an operational concept. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of discourse studies and critical discourse analysis, rhetoric and professional communication, including those in fields such as medicine, engineering, STS and business studies.

Rhetoric at the Non-Substantialistic Turn: The East-West Coin presents a unique theory of rhetoric that encompasses both Eastern and Western approaches. Based on the Field-Being philosophy founded by Lik Kuen Tong, this theory gives an account of the ontological foundations of both kinds of rhetoric. Beginning with an exposition of the nature of Field-Being rhetoric as Eastern and Western, this book presents chapters on Eastern and Western rhetoric over history as power, ethics, art, creativity, politics, and communication. It acknowledges the thinking of many philosophers and rhetoricians who have contributed to East-West comparative studies in both fields and argues that both understandings of rhetoric are necessary for global communication.

The eighth edition provides a streamlined, up-to-date presentation of classic and contemporary theories of persuasion. For more than three decades, the authors have guided readers through the cultural, psychological, and sociological forces influencing why, how, and when humans change their minds. Exploring the complexities and subtleties of persuasive attempts from interpersonal interactions to political advertising is essential for making informed judgments about the value of increasingly pervasive messages. The practice of persuasion is no longer limited to a select few and formal audiences. Online networks with unprecedented reach extend opportunities for multiple persuaders and peer-to-peer influence. Woodward and Denton acknowledge the opportunities and challenges posed by social media and various digital platforms. The final chapter emphasizes visual communication and core strategies for the construction of short messages tailored for digital and commercial media. Engaging descriptions and multiple examples illustrate the dynamic, interactive nature of persuasion. Short sidebars in every chapter suggest interesting applications of key ideas. Becoming responsible, ethical, and credible persuaders and/or critical consumers of messages is an intriguing, and sometimes surprising, journey.

This anthology of original essays has been nearly .two and one-half years in the making, and reflects the generous effort of many persons. To begin with, we thank the contributors to the volume, who not only cooperated with regards to their own works, but who also provided valuable advice concerning the over-all volume. One of the contributors was outstanding in his assistance and warrants special mention: we thank Professor Michel Meyer, for his encouragement, counsel, and dedication to see this project to comple tion. We would also like to thank Professor Jaakko Hintikka for his encouragement and Mrs. Kuipers of Reidel for her patience and under standing along the way. A project such as this could never have been completed without the unique assistance of members of the Department of Communication, Ohio State University: Ms. Kimberly Pasi and Mr. Charles Mawhirtcr. Also, special thanks are due to our graduate research assistant Ms. Susan Jasko, for her proofreading and bibliographic work. The pressures of developing a Festschrift are considerable and could not have been met without the cooperation and enthusiasm of Mrs. Perelman, especially in allowing us to publish Professor Perelman's address to Ohio State University as our introduction.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

This important volume explores alternative ways in which those involved in the field of speech communication have attempted to find a philosophical grounding for rhetoric. Recognizing that rhetoric can be supported in a wide variety of ways, this text examines eight different philosophies of rhetoric: realism, relativism, rationalism, idealism, materialism, existentialism, deconstructionism, and pragmatism. The value of this book lies in its pluralistic and comparative approach to rhetorical theory. Although rhetoric may be the more difficult road to philosophy, the fact that it is being traversed by a group of authors largely from speech communication demonstrates important growth in this field. Ultimately, there is recognition that if different thinkers can have solid reasons to adhere to disparate philosophies, serious communication problems can be eliminated. Rhetoric and Philosophy will assist scholars in choosing from among the many philosphical starting places for rhetoric.

This analysis of the human need to persuade offers a new, creative, application of Aristotelian essentialism to human discourse. Using Thomas Aquinas’s adaptation of essentialism as a starting point, Jeffrey J. Maciejewski argues that persuasion is natural to human beings and that it possesses dispositional properties that bring about stages of human action that ultimately harmonize the operations of the mind in addition to harmonizing human relationships. Aquinas’s philosophy of human nature is reviewed and re-examined in order to discover why it is that humans need to persuade themselves and each other. The book should be of considerable interest to scholars of human nature, Thomist philosophy, and those interested in the history of rhetoric and rhetorical theory.