Rhetorical Knowledge in Legal Practice and Critical Legal Theory (Rhetoric, Culture, and, Social Critique) - Softcover

Francis J. Mootz (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0817360840 ISBN 13: 9780817360849

Publisher: The University of Alabama Press, 2023

Synopsis

A clear summary of contemporary rhetorical philosophy and its intersections with hermeneutics and critical theory

This book describes the significance of rhetorical knowledge for law through detailed discussions of some of the most difficult legal issues facing courts today, including affirmative action, gay rights, and assisted suicide.

Francis J. Mootz responds to both extremes, those who argue that law is merely a rhetorical mask for the exercise of power and those who demonstrate an ideological faith in law’s autonomy, and he breaks new ground by returning to modern classics in the fields of rhetoric and hermeneutics. Drawing from Chaim Perelman's "new rhetoric" and Hans-Georg Gadamer's "philosophical hermeneutics," Mootz argues that justice is a product of rhetorical knowledge. Drawing from Nietzsche, Mootz’s conception of rhetorical knowledge opens up the dynamic possibilities of critical legal theory.

About this title

About the Author

Francis J. Mootz III is Professor of Law at the Dickinson School of Law at Penn State University, editor of Gadamer and Law, andcoeditor with Peter Goodrich Nietzsche and Law.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of Alabama Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0817360840
• ISBN 13: 9780817360849
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 278