Zen in the Art of Rhetoric: An Inquiry into Coherence (SUNY series in Communication Studies). This item is unavailable.Zen in the Art of Rhetoric: An Inquiry into Coherence (SUNY series in Communication Studies)

Drawing on poetry, personal narratives, critical analysis, and epistemological explorations, this book expands traditional conceptions of rhetoric beyond an "art of persuasion" to a power to manage diverse conceptions of reality, freeing the study and practice of discourse from the essentializing constraints of foundationist philosophy. As an "inquiry into coherence," the book explores social, political, and pedagogical issues ranging from racism, to cultural and ethnic diversity, to the role of argument and persuasion in the creation and perpetuation of difference. The result of this exploration is an understanding of rhetoric as a Tao, a Way of being, thinking, and speaking grounded in what the author calls "dialogic coherence," an actively non-argumentative approach to language, life, and method that is based upon the philosophies and practices of the Eastern martial arts.

Mark Lawrence McPhail is Associate Professor of Communications in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah.