The author has built one of America's most distinguished careers among defenders of free speech and civil liberties. Cancel culture, presented in this essay, is not a new phenomenon. In this essay, the author marshals a wealth of survey data to show the scope and depth of the growing crisis: Americans feel more pressure to conceal their viewpoints…

In this paper I provide a critical commentary of Elmer Thiessen's "The Ethics of Evangelism". Following an overview of the book's project and strategies, I discuss two stages of the project in detail. The first is Thiessen's analysis of "religious proselytism"; the second is Thiessen's arguments that…

In this paper I reply to John Tillson's critique of my book, "The Ethics of Evangelism," and Trevor Cooling's critique of my article, "Evangelism in the Classroom," both found in this issue of the journal. (Contains 11 notes.)

Critical, postmodern, and constitutive rhetorics are typically guided by an ethical stance opposing domination and marginalization. However, this stance often functions as an unreflective morality operating outside the constitutive practices of rhetoric itself. To locate an ethical stance within rhetorical practice, we can turn to Isocrates, who…

Alfie Kohn made the case for competition being destructive to education. The truth may be that there are two separate ways to contest: true competition, which is a healthy desire to excel, and decompetition, which is the unhealthy desire merely to beat the opponent. Decompetition leads to the ills that Kohn enumerated. Educators should teach their…

This study challenges the prevailing interpretations of the Greek rhetorical principle of "kairos"--"saying the right thing at the right time"--and attempts to draw on a more nuanced understanding of the term in order to provide generative re-readings of three Braddock Award-winning essays. (Contains 6 notes and 2 figures.)

This publication contains three articles centered on the theme of philosophy and rhetoric. In the first article, "Rhetorical Probability and the Search For Truth," Ruth McGaffey submits that in a free society, decision-making is more often than not based on probability, the subject matter of rhetoric, rather than certainty. Robert F. Holton in the…

There are some critics of ethical egoism who treat it seriously as an ethical doctrine, but consider it an odd approach. Examines this doctrine and suggests that if we are to have the benefit of egoism as a sound ethical approach, or rightly assess its inadequacies, we must first see it fairly. (Author/RK)

Examines Thomas M. Sawyer's proposed legalistic model for ethical argumentation. Argues that Sawyer's model is inadequate because ethical rules are all too plentiful and because the model invites uncritical appeals to ethical rules. Illustrates how argument from analogy is better than Sawyer's approach for discovering and presenting well-defended…

Examines sport as a separate sphere of social reality and the general ethic of team sport. Considers the circumstances that prompt sport figures' apologiae, describes the materials they incorporate in their public defenses, and offers generalizations to explain these conventions. (PD)

Identifies nine rhetorical strategies in Nixon's public utterances on Watergate and traces their development through four phases. Examines polls which reveal that these strategies failed to stem the tide of negative opinion. (PD)

One alternative approach for assessing the moral quality of public argument in liberal democracy is narrative ethics, based not in procedural rationality but in narrative, with a concern for character and community. To be intelligible and practicable, such criticism shifts the focus of ethics from discrete decisions and actions to questions of…

A recurring puzzle in Aristotle's "Rhetoric" is the book's ethical stance; Aristotle gives practical advice on the use of persuasive discourse and intends it to be used in association with virtue, although the two seem to be separable. However, persuasion and virtue in Aristotle's theory of rhetoric have connections deriving from the…

Kenneth Burke's 20 ratios permit the rhetorical critic to make very specific statements about the discourse under analysis and open the way for analytic speculation. The ratio method permits the critic to describe and understand the specific qualities of practical ethical dispute. Burkian ratios were employed to analyze the justificatory rhetoric…

Public utterances that defend illegal actions on moral grounds which supersede legal grounds display distinct rhetorical features. Rhetorical criticism of Thoreau's "Plea for Captain John Brown" (1859) and the Antony Towne and William Stringfellow letter in defense of the Berrigan brothers (1972) reveals five similar rhetorical strategies. These…