Rhetoric, Sophistry, Pragmatism (Literature, Culture, Theory, Series Number 15)

Mailloux, Steven [Editor]

ISBN 10: 0521462258 / ISBN 13: 9780521462259

Published by Cambridge University Press, 1995

About this Item

A firm and square hardback with sharp corners and strong joints, but please note: no dustjacket present, hence a non-text page has a small 'damaged' stamp. Despite such this book is actually in better than very good condition. Thus the contents are crisp, fresh and tight; no pen-marks. Now offered for sale at a very sensible price.

Seller Inventory # 121705

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rhetoric, Sophistry, Pragmatism (Literature, Culture, Theory, Series Number 15)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521462258
• ISBN 13: 9780521462259
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Social Science, Sociology & Culture

About this title

Synopsis

The anti-sceptical relativism and self-conscious rhetoric of the pragmatist tradition, which began with the Older Sophists of Ancient Greece and developed through an American tradition including William James and John Dewey has attracted new attention in the context of late twentieth-century postmodernist thought. At the same time there has been a more general renewal of interest across a wide range of humanistic and social science disciplines in rhetoric itself: language use, writing and speaking, persuasion, figurative language, and the effect of texts. This book, written by leading scholars, explores the various ways in which rhetoric, sophistry and pragmatism overlap in their current theoretical and political implications, and demonstrates how they contribute both to a rethinking of the human sciences within the academy and to larger debates over cultural politics.

Review

"Steven Mailloux's lucid and thoughtful introduction explores relations among rhetoric, pragmitism, and sophistry which explains why all three are object of philosophical disapproval. This collection is more than the sum of its parts. Taken together, the essays promote and exemplify a Deweyan interdisciplinary project of compelling importance. They revise philosophy, intellectual history, an pedagogy to make rhetoric central and to revoke its ancient divorce from dialetic. This this rediscription of our intellectual heritage offers hope that modern rhetoric can both serve and shape the ever-mutating goals of a secular, democratic, and technologically innovative society without discarding the past." Lars Engle, Modern Philology