Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Rhetoric, Modality, Modernity
    Rhetoric, Modality, Modernity
    Rhetoric, Modality, Modernity
    Ebook159 pages3 hours

    Rhetoric, Modality, Modernity

    By Nancy S. Struever

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Since antiquity, philosophy and rhetoric have traditionally been cast as rivals, with the former often lauded as a search for logical truth and the latter usually disparaged as empty speech. But in this erudite intellectual history, Nancy S. Struever stakes out a claim for rhetoric as the more productive form of inquiry.

    Struever views rhetoric through the lens of modality, arguing that rhetoric’s guiding interest in what is possible—as opposed to philosophy’s concern with what is necessary—makes it an ideal tool for understanding politics. Innovative readings of Hobbes and Vico allow her to reexamine rhetoric’s role in the history of modernity and to make fascinating connections between thinkers from the classical, early modern, and modern periods. From there she turns to Walter Benjamin, reclaiming him as an exemplar of modernist rhetoric and a central figure in the long history of the form. Persuasive and perceptive, Rhetoric, Modality, Modernity is a novel rewriting of the history of rhetoric and a heady examination of the motives, issues, and flaws of contemporary inquiry.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
    Release dateNov 15, 2009
    ISBN9780226777504
    Rhetoric, Modality, Modernity

    Related to Rhetoric, Modality, Modernity

    Related ebooks

    Language Arts & Discipline For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Herbert Spencer’s Principle of Equal Freedom: Is It Well Grounded?

      Sep 1, 2020

      During the mid-to late nineteenth century, Herbert Spencer was the most widely read philosopher in the world. A large part of his appeal was owing to his ambition of providing a complete and comprehensive account of human reality based on scientific

      38 min read

    • Article

      This Essentially Meaningless Conflict

      Sep 22, 2017

      MARILYNNE ROBINSON’S accomplishments are impressive by any standard: she has won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and the National Humanities Medal, among other honors. But perhaps a better measure o

      8 min read

    • Article

      Who’s Afraid of Theory?

      Oct 29, 2020

      The conclusion among many folks is that Theory is a kind of philosophical Mad Libs disappearing up its own ass, accountable to nobody but itself and the departments that coddle it. The post Who’s Afraid of Theory? appeared first on The Millions.

      14 min read

    • Article

      The New Curator: Exhibiting Architecture and Design

      Nov 4, 2021

      Looking back, we might identify the 2006 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, by Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond, as the moment when the idea of curating architecture crystallized as a distinct topic. This was when Hans Ulrich Obrist joined the gallery and in

      3 min read

    • Article

      We Have to Talk About Doubt: How to tell the difference between scientific and conspiratorial skepticism.

      Sep 1, 2021

      What is the role of reasonable doubt in advancing science? And how should we contrast scientific doubt with the cavilling doubt of conspiracy theories which play little part in advancing understanding? Over the last year we have seen the scientific m

      5 min read

    • Article

      Rethinking Heritage

      Dec 24, 2020

      Rethinking Heritage
      5 min read

    • Article

      The English Professor Who Foresaw Modern Neuroscience

      May 19, 2021

      In the 21st century, neuroscience has been able to extend our understanding of the brain beyond brain anatomy to an increasingly functional view of cognition. Every year brings new insights on memory and imagination, and reveals often surprising area

      7 min read

    • Article

      Varieties of Experience

      Sep 1, 2020

      THERE IS A PUZZLE at the heart of my academic work. I am an anthropologist, and among other things, I study the voices (or auditory hallucinations) of people in different countries who have schizophrenia. Their voices are clearly shaped by local cult

      4 min read

    • Article

      Inspired to Write

      Jun 30, 2021

      Inspired to Write
      4 min read

    • Article

      Know Your Philosophers

      Aug 2, 2020

      Know Your Philosophers
      4 min read

    • Article

      Deconstructing The Decolonisers

      Jul 27, 2023

      TO DECOLONISE THE CURRICULUM or not to decolonise the curriculum, that is the question. In his latest book, Against Decolonisation: Campus Culture Wars and the Decline of the West, Doug Stokes turns his analytical eye for international affairs inward

      4 min read

    • Article

      World-Building in Arizona

      Jun 14, 2023

      World-Building in Arizona
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Love Letter To Hard-won Wisdom

      Mar 30, 2023

      AT THE START OF MY SECONDyear studying PP (I had by then blessedly dropped the E) at Oxford, I remember a bright-eyed fresher approaching my philosophy tutor, a man by the name of Bob Hargrave, in the bar. Having successfully identified A Philosopher

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Bongard Problem

      Jun 4, 2018

      This text adopts the form of a Bongard problem, which is a kind of puzzle with two sides. In Bongard problems, the viewer is meant to decipher the singular difference between two sets of geometric forms. They have been used as a way to illustrate met

      6 min read

    • Article

      Introduction: The Political Economy of Great Works of Literature

      Nov 1, 2020

      The Independent Review aims to be an “interdisciplinary journal devoted to the study of political economy and the critical analysis of government policy,” which covers “economics, political science, law, history, philosophy, and sociology.”1 This iss

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Rhetoric, Modality, Modernity

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Rhetoric, Modality, Modernity - Nancy S. Struever

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1