Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric
30th Anniversary Edition
The anniversary edition marks thirty years of offering an indispensable review and analysis of thinkers who have exerted a profound influence on contemporary rhetorical theory: I. A. Richards, Ernesto Grassi, Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, Stephen Toulmin, Richard Weaver, Kenneth Burke, Jürgen Habermas, bell hooks, Jean Baudrillard, and Michel Foucault. The brief biographical sketches locate the theorists in time and place, showing how life experiences influenced perspectives on rhetorical thought. The concise explanations of complex concepts are clear, engaging, insightful, and highly accessible, serving as an excellent primer for reading the major works of these scholars. The critical commentary is carefully chosen to highlight implications and to place the theories within a broader rhetorical context. Each chapter ends with a complete bibliography of works by the theorists.
Table of Contents
1. An Introduction to Rhetoric
Classical Theories of Rhetoric / Contemporary Theories of Rhetoric

2. I. A. Richards
Objections to Traditional Rhetoric / Proposal for a New Rhetoric / Meaning / Elimination of Misunderstanding

3. Ernesto Grassi
Italian Humanism / The Scientific Paradigm / Humanism / Giambattista Vico: A Source for Grassi's Rhetoric / Grassi's Philosophical and Rhetorical System / Rhetorical versus Rational Speech

4. Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca
Need for a New Rhetoric / Argumentation and Logic / Audience / Starting Points of Argumentation / Presence / Techniques of Presentation / Techniques of Argumentation / The Interaction of Arguments

5. Stephen Toulmin
Theoretical and Practical Argument / Emancipation of Practical Argument

6. Richard M. Weaver
Nature of the Human Being / Knowledge and Truth / Nature of Culture / Rhetoric and Dialectic / Rhetorical Embodiment of Worldview / Decline of Rhetoric

7. Kenneth Burke
Rhetoric / Dramatism / Logology / Definition of the Human Being

8. Jürgen Habermas
Reason and the Public Sphere / Human Knowledge / Lifeworld and System / Universal Pragmatics / Validity Claims / Level of Discourse

9. bell hooks
Ideology of Domination / Marginality as a Site of Resistance / Feminism / Decolonization through Rhetoric

10. Jean Baudrillard
Evolution of Simulation / The Mass Media / The Commodity Culture / The Centrality of the Object / Responses to Hypertelia

11. Michel Foucault
Knowledge / Power / Ethics / Analytical Methods