Nietzsche and rhetoric

Abstract

The thesis maintained here is that Nietzsche belongs to and revitalizes a rhetorical tradition which has competed with philosophy for cultural and educational dominance. The general strategy of the thesis is to draw comparisons between Nietzsche and those aspects of the Sophists' activity that were attacked by Plato, in order to challenge philosophy's claim to moral and intellectual superiority over rhetoric. The first chapter considers the allegation that philosophy is demonstrably superior to rhetoric because it has a proper method and can achieve positive results. Against this, it is argued that philosophy is distinguished from rhetoric by its values, not its methodological purity; the remaining chapters probe this conflict of values. Chapter two explores the charge that rhetoric is both manipulative and open to manipulation, notes how Nietzsche's texts have been subject to these two criticisms, and counters them by challenging philosophy's models of manipulation and education. Chapter three examines the rival educational ideals of philosophy and rhetoric, arguing that the key differentiating feature is rhetoric's pragmatism. It shows how this feature has been used to disparage rhetoric, and argues that Nietzsche develops a form of pragmatism that meets the philosophical attack effectively. Chapter four considers the suggestion that rhetoric is less rational than philosophy because it employs looser argumentation, and argues that, at least as manifested by Nietzsche, rhetorical argumentation produces a superior rationality - according to an alternative perspective on reason and science. Chapter five considers the claim that the eloquence of rhetoric is to be condemned for seducing and confusing the seeker after truth; this is countered by developing the Nietzschean dictum that art is worth more than truth. The main conclusion is that, through Nietzsche's development of the ancient tradition, rhetoric emerges as a real alternative "love of wisdom"

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

  • Only published works are available at libraries.

Similar books and articles

Friedrich Nietzsche on rhetoric and language.Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - 1989 - New York: Oxford University Press. Edited by Sander L. Gilman, Carole Blair & David J. Parent.
Nietzsche's Rhetoric: Theory and Strategy.James I. Porter - 1994 - Philosophy and Rhetoric 27 (3):218 - 244.
Nietzsche'S Lecture Notes On Rhetoric: A Translation.Carole Blair - 1983 - Philosophy and Rhetoric 16 (2):94-129.
Rhetoric and Philosophy.Richard A. Cherwitz (ed.) - 1990 - L. Erlbaum Associates.
Economic rhetoric and the explanation of success.Robert Nadeau - 2001 - Revue Internationale de Philosophie 3:351-369.
The new rhetoric project.James Crosswhite - 2010 - Philosophy and Rhetoric 43 (4):301-307.
Struever's “Rhetoric as Inquiry”.Rocco Rubini - 2012 - Philosophy and Rhetoric 45 (1):89-98.
Rhetoric, sophistry, pragmatism.Steven Mailloux (ed.) - 1995 - New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.

Analytics

Added to PP
2012-01-10

Downloads
35 (#393,691)

6 months
2 (#658,848)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Discourse on Method.René Descartes - 1900 - The Monist 10:472.
Exhibit.[author unknown] - 2013 - The Chesterton Review 39 (1/2):351-355.

Add more references