The Philosophy of Rhetoric

الغلاف الأمامي
SIU Press, 01‏/03‏/1988 - 504 من الصفحات
Here, after a quarter century of additional study and reflection, Bitzer presents a new critical edition of George Campbell’s classic. Bitzer provides a more complete review and assessment of Campbell’s work, giving particular emphasis to Campbell’s theological views, which he demonstrates played an important part in Campbell’s overall view of reasoning, feeling, and moral and religious truth. The Rhetoric is widely regarded as the most important statement of a theory of rhetoric produced in the 18th century. Its importance lies, in part, in the fact that the theory is informed by the leading assumptions and themes of the Scottish Enlightenment—the prevailing empiricism, the theory of the association of ideas, the effort to explain natural phenomena by reference to principles and processes of human nature. Campbell’s work engages such themes in an attempt to formulate a universal theory of human communication. Campbell attempts to develop his theory by discovering deep principles in human nature that account for all instances and kinds of human communication. He seeks to derive all communication principles and processes empirically. In addition, all statements in discourse that have to do with matters of fact and human affairs are likewise to be empirically derived. Thus, his theory of rhetoric is vastly wider than, and different from, such classical theories as those proposed by Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian, whose theories focused on discourse related to civic affairs.

Bitzer shows that, by attempting to elaborate a general theory of rhetoric through empirical procedures, Campbell’s project reveals the limitations of his method. He cannot ground all statements empirically and it is at this point that his theological position comes into play. Inspection of his religious views shows that God’s design of human nature, and God’s revelations to humankind, make moral and spiritual truths known and quite secure to human beings, although not empirically.

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المحتوى

Editors Introduction
vii
Editions of The Philosophy of Rhetoric
liii
Corrections and Additions
lvii
Preface
lxv
Introduction
lxix
Book I The Nature and Foundaitons of Elequence
1
Book II The Foundations and Essential Properties of Elocution
139
Book III The Discriminating Properties of Elocution
285
Index
417
Author Bio
424
Back Cover
425
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نبذة عن المؤلف (1988)

Lloyd F. Bitzer is Professor of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he has received the Vilas Associate Award for 1986–88.

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