Discusses Aristotle's five means of making judgments: intelligence, "episteme" (scientific knowledge), "sophia" (theoretical wisdom), "techne" (art), and "phronesis" (practical wisdom). Sets Aristotle's theory of rhetorical argument within the context of his overall view of human judgment. Notes that…

Examines the rhetorical function of the 1945 photograph of the flag raising at Iwo Jima as it is appropriated in a number of recent editorial cartoons. Builds upon rhetorical theory addressing repetitive form and visual metaphor to propose a concept of representative form. Argues that the parodied Iwo Jima image operates as an instance of…

Examines the emergence of social documentary photojournalism in the 1930s and its ideological implications. Examines James Agee and Walker Evans's "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" as representative of the tensions between individualism and collectivism at the heart of liberal democracy. (SR)

Reviews criticism of Philip Wander's 1983 article, "The Ideological Turn in Modern Criticism." Shows how critics of Wander's "ideological criticism" subscribed to an essentialist notion of rhetoric, adopted a theory of innocent reading, and displayed unexamined prejudices about canonical texts. Urges academic rhetoricians to acknowledge that all…

Addresses the debate over rhetoric's epistemic status in terms of Nietzsche's critique of epistemology. Suggests that Nietzsche's aestheticism provides an alternative to the debate. Focuses on differences between the rhetorics of the epistemic and the aesthetic. (SR)

Contributes to scholarship on rhetorical theory by examining the rhetorical aspects of spontaneous shrines that develop on the sites of public tragedies. Compares two contemporary shrines to private mourning rituals of the last century, revealing a common cultural metanarrative that promises continuity and certainty in a time of chaos. (SR)

Argues that (1) Chaim Perelman's philosophy and the New Rhetoric project reflect his Jewish heritage and Talmudic habits of argument; and (2) because Perelmanian philosophy enacts Jewish and Talmudic thought, the New Rhetoric charts a "third way" between Enlightenment metaphysics and the more extreme expressions of postmodernism,…

Explains sharp inconsistencies in Edmund Burke's rhetorical abilities by exploring two distinct conceptions of rhetoric: rhetoric as an instrument of prudential reason and as an existential means of constituting oneself. Examines Burke's private correspondence to show how this struggle between rhetorical prudence and rhetorical heroism generated…

Argues that the two principle modes of organizing rhetorical theories in histories of rhetoric (according to influence or systems) frequently mask or distort the particularity of rhetoric's history. Forwards an alternative critical history that privileges the notions of text, particularity, change, and criticism. (SR)

Postulates that the philosophy of dialogue developed by Martin Buber provides a coherent grounding for a dialogical/ontological rhetoric. Contrasts, respectively, instrumental and dialogical conceptions of the rhetorical situation and instrumental and dialogical characterizations of the rhetor, the rhetor's purposes and modes of influence.…

Argues for the priority of a "praxical" hermeneutics over both an ontological and a methodological one. Proposes a praxical dimension to the hermeneutic tradition within communication studies by focusing on and expanding Hans-Georg Gadamer's notion of practice. Suggests some new possibilities for the study of communication and mass…

Observes that three dominant perspectives on intentionality--the encoder, decoder, and interactional--emerge from communication literature. Explains that the encoder perspective links intent to conscious activity, whereas the decoder perspective associates intent with observable actions. Notes that the interactional perspective attempts to unite…

Establishes that narrative theorists of the Hellenistic period described the ill-defined technique of architectonic parallelism by way of its absence, criticizing less elaborated works as unfinished and half-finished. Offers two narrative complexes from the "Gospel of Mark" as case examples of his assumptions of audience awareness as a…

Finds (1) no clear instances of generic "he" in conversation but (2) that speakers use "they" as an unmarked singular generic pronoun. Finds some possibly-generic uses of "he" situates these within controversies about gender-fair references to women and men and concludes that conversational uses of "he" seem more various and complex (and perhaps…

Discusses Goedel's Theorem (said to mark the loss of certainty in formal logic and the beginning of the postmodern reformulation of the nature of knowledge). Shows Goedel's proof as an eloquent model-changing text that (1) demonstrates the inability of language to represent reality in a way that guarantees unambiguous communication; and (2) uses…