Realm of Rhetoric, The - Softcover

Perelman, Chaïm

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0268016054 ISBN 13: 9780268016050

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982

Synopsis

The Realm of Rhetoric follows in the tradition of the author's The New Rhetoric, hailed for its wide-ranging and innovative approaches to argumentation. In this new study Chaim Perelman continues to develop his ideas on the theory of rhetoric, now even more cogently and persuasively presented. Pruned of much detail present in the earlier book, this new work captures the essence of his thought in a style and presentation suitable to the program and needs of an English-speaking audience. It is an ideal instruction medium for students approaching theories of informal argumentation for the first time. Perelman raises the questions, "How do claims to reasonableness arise in prose that is not formally logical?" and "What does 'reasonableness' mean for some who speaks of 'reasonable men' or 'beyond reasonable doubt'?" He then shows how claims to rationality are embedded in a number of verbal structures heretofore considered exclusively ornamental or dispositional. He identifies and discusses many argumentative techniques in addition to the quasi-logical methods conventionally treated in textbooks and notes numerous subforms of argumentation within each of the general types he identifies.

About this title

About the Author

Chaïm Perelman (1912–1984), a Polish-born philosopher of law, studied, taught, and lived most of his life in Brussels. He became the youngest full professor in the history of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he remained for the rest of his career. He was among the most important argumentation theorists of the twentieth century.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Publication date: 1982
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0268016054
• ISBN 13: 9780268016050
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 206