Abstract
In this essay we contend that traditional theories of argument are consonant with and enrich the project of postmodernity. Reading postmodernity as ‘a rhetoric’ underscores how the process of discursively resolving conflicts is occasionally threatened by politically motivated efforts to misuse the methods of argument; it alerts us to the egregious acts that are and can be performed ‘in the name of,’ but not because of, rationality. Postmodernity is thus an attempt by a new generation of theorists to recast and draw attention to perennial philosophical problems in the context of contemporary political difficulties.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adorno, T. A.: 1953,Negative Dialectics, London: Routledge & Keagan Paul.
Aristotle: 335 B.C./1932,Art of Rhetoric, Lane Cooper, Trans. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Baudrillard, J. 1983,Simulations, New York: Semiotext(e).
Cherwitz, R. A., and Hikins, J., W.: 1995, ‘Rhetoric and Post-Deconstructionism: A Relationalist Theory of Meaning,’ in Rosalind J. Gabin (ed.),Discourse Studies in Honor of James L. Kinneavy, Washington: Scripta Huministica.
—: 1990, ‘Irreducible Dualisms and the Residue of Commonsense: On the Inevitability of Cartesian Anxiety,’Philosophy and Rhetoric, 23, 229–41.
—: 1986,Communication and Knowledge: An Investigation in Rhetorical Epistemology, Columbia: The University of South Carolina.
Connor, S.: 1989,Postmodernist Culture: An Introduction to Theories of the Contemporary, New York: Basil Blackwell.
Crews, F.: 1986,Skeptical Engagements, New York: Oxford.
Darwin, T. J.: 1991,Speaking Well and Knowing Well: The Politics of Rhetorical Epistemology, Unpublished Masters Thesis. The University of Texas at Austin.
Derrida, J.: 1973, Differance.Speech and Phenomena and Other essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs, David B. Allison, Trans. Evanston: Northwestern University, pp. 129–160.
—: 1976,Of Grammatology, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Trans, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University.
—: 1978,Writing and Difference, Alan Bass, Trans.: Chicago: The University of Chicago.
—: 1988a,Limited Inc., Samuel Weber, Trans., Evanston: Northwestern University.
—: 1988b, Letter to a Japanese Friend, David Wood and Andrew Benjamin, Trans.,Derrida and Differance, David Woo and Robert Bernasconi, Eds., Evanston: Northwestern University, pp. 1–5.
de Saussure, F.: 1959/66,Course in General Linguistics, Charles Bally, Albert Sechehaye and Albert Riedlinger, (eds.), Wade Baskin, Trans., New York: McGraw-Hill.
Dewey, J.: 1948,Reconstruction in Philosophy, Boston: Beacon.
Ehninger, D.: 1970, ‘Argument as Method: Its Nature, Its Limitations and Its Uses,’Speech Monographs, 37, 101–110.
—: 1980, ‘Toward a Taxonomy of Prescriptive Discourse’, in Eugene White (ed.),Rhetoric in Transition: Studies in the Nature and Uses of Rhetoric, University Park: Pennsylvania State University, pp. 89–100.
Ehninger, D. and W. Brockriede: 1978,Decision by Debate, New York: Harper & Row.
Foster, H. (ed.): 1983,The Anti-Aesthetic, Port Townsend: Bay Press.
Foucault, M.: 1972,The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language, A. M. Sheridan Smith, Trans., New York: Pantheon Books.
—: 1978,The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction, Robert Hurley, Trans. New York: Vintage Books.
—: 1979, ‘What is an Author?’, in Josue V. Harari (ed.),Textual Strategies: Perspectives in Post-Structuralist Criticism, Ithaca: Cornell University, pp. 141–160.
Freud, S. 1930/1961,Civilization and Its Discontents, James Strachey, Ed. and Trans, New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Habermas, J.: 1987,The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures, Frederick Lawrence, Trans., Cambridge: The MIT.
Harvey, D.: 1989,The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change, Cambridge: Basil Blackwell.
Hassan, I.: 1987,The Postmodern Turn: Essays in Postmodern Theory and Culture, Columbus: Ohio State University.
Huyssen, A.: 1986,After the Great Divide: Modernism, Mass Culture, Postmodernism, Bloomington: Indiana University.
Jameson, F. 1984, Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism,New Left Review, 146, 53–92.
Johnstone, H. W. Jr.: 1965, ‘Some Reflections on Argumentation’, in Maurice Natanson and Henry W. Johnstone, Jr., (ed),Philosophy, Rhetoric and Argumentation, University Park: Pennsylvania State University, pp. 1–9.
Kolb, D.: 1986,The Critique of Pure Modernity: Hegel, Heidegger, and After, Chicago: University of Chicago.
Kroker, A.: 1988,The Postmodern Scene: Excremental Culture and Hyper-Aesthetics, New York: St. Martins.
Lyotard, J. F.: 1984,The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi, Trans., Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.
—: 1988,The Differend: Phrases in Dispute, Georges Van Den Abbeele, Trans. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.
Marx, K. and Engels, F. (ed.): 1932/1939,German Ideology, New York: International Publishers.
McGowan, J.: 1991,Postmodernism and Its Critics, Ithaca: Cornell University.
Natanson, M.: 1965, The Claims of Immediacy, in Maurice Natanson and Henry W., Johnstone, Jr. (ed.),Philosophy, Rhetoric and Argumentation, University Park: Pennsylvania State University, pp. 10–19.
Norris, C.: 1982,Deconstruction: Theory and Practice, London and New York: Methuen.
—: 1990,What's Wrong With Postmodernism: Critical Theory and the Ends of Philosophy, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University.
Perelman, Ch. and Olbrechts-Tyteca, L.: 1969,The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation, John Wilkinson and Purcell Weaver, Trans. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame.
Russman, T. A.: 1992, ‘Postmodernism and the Parody of Argument,’Argumentation. (in this issue).
Toulmin, S.: 1958,The Uses of Argument, Cambridge: University Press.
Waddell, C.: 1988, ‘The Fusion of Horizons: A Dialectical Response to the Problem of Self-Exempting Fallacy in Contemporary Constructivist Arguments,’Philosophy and Rhetoric, 21, 103–15.
Whately, R.: 1828/1963,Elements of Rhetoric, Douglas Ehninger, (ed.), Carbondale: Southern Illinois.
Zarefsky, D.: 1976, Argument as Hypothesis-Testing. Paper presented at the Speech Communication Association Convention in San Francisco, California.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cherwitz, R.A., Darwin, T.J. On the continuing utility of argument in a postmodern world. Argumentation 9, 181–202 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00733108
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00733108