While Aristotle's philosophical views are more foundational than those of many of the Older Sophists, Aristotle's rhetorical theories inherit and incorporate many of the central tenets ascribed to Sophistic rhetoric, albeit in a more systematic fashion, as represented in the "Rhetoric." However, Aristotle was more than just a rhetorical…

Historicizes the reception of the term "Platonist" and "sophist." Argues that the separate commentaries of three neo-Platonists reflects a collectively held valuation of sophistry. Considers how these elaborations in turn become explicitly rejected by Augustine. Situates the transmission and developments of sophistry,…

Argues for the pluralistic bent of rhetoric. Notes that, whether rhetoric is taken as theory, practice, or pedagogy, as communication of one to many or as intertextuality, pluralism is the matrix in which rhetoricians twist and turn trying to make sense. (RS)

Presents a 278-item bibliography of works by and about Richard M. Weaver, including books, theses, dissertations, articles and pamphlets, and reviews. (TB)

Kenneth Burke's employment with the Bureau of Social Hygiene informed his rhetorical theory in the 1930s. Between 1926 and 1930, Burke researched criminology and drug addiction and ghostwrote a book for Colonel Arthur Woods, Dangerous Drugs. An investigation of archives indicates that this research left its mark on Burke's Permanence and Change…

In this article, the author explores the confluence of discourses surrounding disability, identity, and institutional writing to better understand the rhetorical politics of disability. She argues that a fresh theoretical frame is needed to understand the ways in which students rhetorically manage "risky" bodily identities, particularly in…

This essay examines the rhetorical persona of the "Fool" as employed by General Charles Gordon in six volumes of journals recorded during the siege of Khartoum by Mahdist forces from September to December, 1884. After identifying the particular rhetorical aspects of the "Fool" as social critic/site of ideological contestation,…

From a rhetorical perspective, Mendel's work and its reception elicit two important questions: (a) why were Mendel's arguments so compelling to 20th century biologists? And (b) why where they so roundly ignored by his contemporaries? The focus of this article is to examine the latter question while commenting on the former by employing several…

Rhetoric is often about "good guys" and "bad guys." Even more basically, it concerns who is in and who is out, what is included and what is excluded, who is placed inside and who outside a cultural community, a political movement, a professional organization. These ins and outs concern both the commonplaces of rhetoric and the rhetoric of …

We need to complicate current accounts of critical pedagogy by examining how educational institutions beyond traditional classrooms have served progressive movements. One example was the Sea Island Citizenship Schools. By examining the latter's history, we also become better aware of how the education-related work of the American civil rights…

This essay explores a series of discourses surrounding the images of the early twentieth-century stereoscope, focusing on Underwood & Underwood of Ottawa, Kansas, and the Keystone View Company, of Meadville, Pennsylvania. By publishing images of particular geographic areas and historical events, as well as compendium volumes that included…

Although a Ph.D. candidate feels pressured to take sides in the discursive war in academe between social-epistemics and expressionists, he finds it difficult to do so. W. Ross Winterowd, a "spokesperson" for social-epistemic rhetoric, makes distinctions between the two camps, maintaining a discursive dichotomy between what he calls the…

Suggests that the writings of Isocrates offer an example for and an extension of the critical rhetoric project. Notes that Isocrates's combination of critique and service urges rhetors to act as critical servants. Concludes that the critic's reading of the community's history reunites the individual and the social, theory and practice, critique…

Outlines the rhetorical contributions of Walter Benjamin, who attempted to develop a social critique arguing for the decisive function of critical intervention. Suggests Benjamin's insights about the liberatory role of the engaged social agent warrant closer attention. Proposes his ideas provide useful avenues for examining contemporary texts and…

Revisits the hemisphericity theory of the 1970s and the revised and less familiar accounts that emerged in the 1980s. Argues that neither the older nor the newer psychobiological accounts of mind support the Neoclassical/Romantic claims. Contends that these accounts are more congenial to an Aristotelian theory of mind and rhetoric. (RS)