Rhetoric of science is a body of
scholarly literatureAcademic publishing describes the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in journal article, book or thesis form. The non commercial part of academic publishing is called grey literature...
exploring the notion that the practice of
scienceScience is in its broadest sense to any systematic knowledge-base or prescriptive practice that is capable of resulting in a prediction or predictable type of outcome...
is a
rhetoricRhetoric is one of the arts of using language as a means to persuade. Along with grammar and logic or dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. From ancient Greece to the late 19th Century, it was a central part of Western education, filling the need to train public...
al activity. It emerged from a number of disciplines during the late twentieth century, including the disciplines of
sociologySociology is the scientific or systematic study of human societies. It is a branch of social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, often with the goal of applying such...
,
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
, and
philosophy of scienceThe philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, and implications of science. The field is defined by an interest in one of a set of "traditional" problems or an interest in central or foundational concerns in science...
, but it is practiced most fully by rhetoricians in departments of English, speech, and communication.
RhetoricRhetoric is one of the arts of using language as a means to persuade. Along with grammar and logic or dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. From ancient Greece to the late 19th Century, it was a central part of Western education, filling the need to train public...
is best known as a discipline that studies the means and ends of
persuasionPersuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding people and oneself toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic means. It is a strategy of problem-solving relying on "appeals" rather than coercion...
. Science, meanwhile, is typically seen as the discovery and recording of
knowledgeKnowledge is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or awareness or familiarity gained...
about the natural world. A key contention of rhetoric of science is that the practice of science is, to varying degrees, persuasive. The study of science from this viewpoint variously examines modes of inquiry, logic, argumentation, the ethos of scientific practitioners, the structures of scientific publications, and the character of scientific discourse and debates.
For instance, scientists must convince their community of scientists that their research is based on sound scientific method. From a rhetorical point of view,
scientific methodScientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific...
involves problem-solution
topoi (the materials of discourse) that demonstrate observational and experimental competence (arrangement or order of discourse or method), and as a means of persuasion, offer explanatory and predictive power (Prelli 185-193). Experimental competence is itself a persuasive
topos (Prelli 186). Rhetoric of science is a practice of suasion that is an outgrowth of some of the canons of rhetoric.
History
Since 1970, rhetoric of science, as a field involving rhetoricians, flourished. This flourishing of scholarly activity contributed to a shift in the image of science that was taking place (Harris “Intro,”
Landmark xv). A conservative approach to rhetoric of science involves treating texts as communications designed to persuade members of scientific communities. This approach concerns scientific claims that are already considered true as a result of the scientific process rather than the rhetorical process. A more radical approach, on the other hand, would treat these same texts as if the science held within them is also an object of rhetorical scrutiny (Gross "Rhetoric of Science,"
Encyclopedia 622-623). Among those in the conservative camp, who view science texts as vehicles of communication, are
Charles BazermanCharles Bazerman is an American educator and scholar. He was born and raised in New York. He is one of the world's leading experts on writing and has contributed significantly to the establishment of writing as a research field...
,
John Angus CampbellJohn Angus Campbell is a retired American Professor of Rhetoric and is a Fellow of the Center for Science and Culture and of the International Society for Complexity, Information and Design, a professional society dedicated to the promotion of intelligent...
, Greg Myers, Jean Dietz Moss, Lawrence Prelli, Carolyn Miller and Jeanne Fahnestock. Bazerman's close readings of works by Newton and Compton as well as his analysis of the reading habits of physicists and others led to a greater understanding of the successes and failures of communication (Gross "Rhetoric of Science,"
Encyclopedia 623-624). For a depiction of the views of the more radical camp, see the section titled "Critique of Rhetoric of Science."
The history of the rhetoric of science effectively begins with Thomas Kuhn’s seminal work,
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). He examines first normal science, that is, a practice which he saw as routine, patterned and accessible with a specific method of problem-solving. Building on past knowledge, normal science advances by accretions in a
knowledge baseA knowledge base is a special kind of database for knowledge management, providing the means for the computerized collection, organization, and retrieval of knowledge.-Types:...
(Harris “Intro,”
Landmark xiii). Kuhn then contrasts normal science with revolutionary science (ground-breaking science marked by a paradigm-shift in thought). When Kuhn began to teach Harvard undergraduates historical texts such as Aristotle’s writings on motion, he looked to case studies, and sought first to understand Aristotle in his own time, and then to locate his problems and solutions within a wider context of contemporary thought and actions (Nickles 144). That is to say, Kuhn sought first to understand the traditions and established practices of science (Nickles 162). In this instance,
Michael PolanyiMichael Polanyi, FRS was a Hungarian–British polymath whose thought and work extended across physical chemistry, economics, and philosophy. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.-Early life:Polanyi was born into a Jewish family...
's influence on Kuhn becomes apparent; that is, his acknowledgement of the importance of inherited practices and rejection of absolute objectivity. Observing the changes in scientific thought and practices, Kuhn concluded that revolutionary changes happen through the defining notion of rhetoric:
persuasionPersuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding people and oneself toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic means. It is a strategy of problem-solving relying on "appeals" rather than coercion...
(Harris “Intro,”
Landmark xiv). The critical work of Herbert W. Simons - "Are Scientists Rhetors in Disguise?" in
Rhetoric in Transition (1980) - and subsequent works show that Kuhn’s
Structure is fully rhetorical.
The work of Thomas Kuhn was extended by
Richard RortyRichard McKay Rorty was an American philosopher. He had a long and diverse career in Philosophy, Humanities, and Literature departments...
(1979, 1989), and this work was to prove fruitful in defining the means and ends of rhetoric in scientific discourse (Jasinski “Intro” xvi). Rorty, who coined the phrase “rhetorical turn,” was also interested in assessing periods of scientific stability and instability.
Another component of the shift in science that took place in the past centres on the claim that there is no single scientific method, but rather a plurality of methods, approaches or styles (Harris "Intro,"
Landmark xvi).
Paul FeyerabendPaul Karl Feyerabend was an Austrian-born philosopher of science best known for his work as a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked for three decades...
in
Against Method (1975) contends that science has found no “method that turns ideologically contaminated ideas into true and useful theories,” in other words; no special method exists that can guarantee the success of science (302).
As evidenced in the early theory papers after Kuhn’s seminal work, the idea that rhetoric is crucial to science came to the fore. Quarterly journals in speech and rhetoric saw a flourishing of discussion on topics such as inquiry,
logicLogic, from the Greek λογική is the art and science of reasoning. More specifically, it is defined by the Penguin Encyclopedia to be "The formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning". As a discipline, logic dates back to Aristotle, who established its...
, argument fields,
ethosEthos is a Greek word originally meaning "accustomed place" , "custom, habit", equivalent to Latin mores....
of scientific practitioners, argumentation, scientific text, and the character of scientific
discourseDiscourse means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion of debate." The term is often used in semantics and discourse analysis....
and debates. Philip Wander (1976) observed, for instance, the phenomenal penetration of science (public science) in modern life. He labelled the obligation of rhetoricians to investigate science's discourse ' "The Rhetoric of Science" (Harris "Knowing" 164).
As rhetoric of science began to flourish, discussion arose in a number of areas, including:
- Epistemic rhetoric and the discourses on the nature of semantics, knowledge, and truth: One example is the Robert L. Scott's work on viewing rhetoric as epistemic (1967). By the 1990s, epistemic rhetoric was a point of contention in the writing of Dilip Gaonkar (see "Critique" below).
- The early 1970s Speech Communication Conference ("Wingspread conference") gave recognition to the fact that rhetoric, in its globalization (multidisciplinary nature), has become a universal hermeneutic (Gross Rhetorical 2-5). Much scholastic output evolved around the theory of interpretation (hermeneutics), the knowledge-making and truth-seeking (epistemic) potential of rhetoric of science.
- Argument Fields (part of the Speech Communication Association and American forensic Association program): In this domain the work of Toulmin
Stephen Edelston Toulmin is a British philosopher, author, and educator. Influenced by the Austrian born British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, Toulmin devoted his works to the analysis of moral reasoning. Throughout his writings, he seeks to develop practical arguments which can be used...
on argument appeals is exemplary. In addition, Michael Mulkay, Barry Barnes and David Bloor, as pioneers of the "Sociology of Scientific Knowledge" (SSK) movement, fostered a growing sociobiology debate. Others as Greg Myers expressed the benefits of a collaboration between rhetoricians and sociologists. Contributors to discussion pertaining to audience - the way arguments change as they move from the scientific community to the public - include John Lyne and Henry Howe (Harris "Intro," Landmark xxi-xxxii).
- Scientific Giants: The important works that investigate the suasive powers of exemplars in science include those of Alan Gross (Newton, Descartes, argument fields in optics), John Angus Campbell (Darwin), and Michael Halloran (Watson and Crick). John Angus Campbell's work on Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, for instance his work titled, "Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
: Rhetorician of Science" (1987), shows that Darwin was a rhetorician through and through. Campbell provided an early 'case' in support of rhetoric of science (Harris "Intro," Landmark xxx).
Other major themes in rhetoric of science include the investigation of the accomplishments and sausive abilities of individuals (ethos) who have left a mark in their respective sciences as well as an age old concern of rhetoric of science - public science policy. Science policy involves deliberative issues, and the first rhetorical study of science policy was made in 1953 by
Richard M. WeaverRichard Malcolm Weaver, Jr was an American scholar who taught English at the University of Chicago. He is primarily known as a shaper of mid- 20th century conservatism and as an authority on modern rhetoric...
. Among others,
Helen LonginoHelen E. Longino is an American philosopher of science who has argued influentially for the significance of values and social interactions to scientific inquiry.-Career:...
's work on public policy implications of low-level radiation continues this tradition (Gross "Rhetoric of Science,"
Encyclopedia 622).
The reconstitution of rhetorical theory around the lines of invention (
inventioInventio is the system or method used for the discovery of arguments in Western rhetoric and comes from the Latin word, meaning "invention" or "discovery"...
), argumentation and stylistic adaptation is going on today (Simons 6). The key question today is whether training in rhetoric can in fact help scholars and investigators make intelligent choices between rival theories, methods or data collection, and incommensurate values (Simons 14).
Epistemic rhetoric
Seeing science from the point of texts exhibiting
epistemologyEpistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge...
based on prediction and control offers new comprehensive ways to see the function of rhetoric of science (Gross “The Origin” 91-92). Epistemic rhetoric of science, in a broader context, confronts issues pertaining to
truthTruth can have a variety of meanings, from the state of being the case, being in accord with a particular fact or reality, being in accord with the body of real things, events, actuality, or fidelity to an original or to a standard. In archaic usage it could be fidelity, constancy or sincerity in...
,
relativismRelativism is the idea that some elements or aspects of experience or culture are relative to, i.e., dependent on, other elements or aspects.Common statements that might be considered relativistic include:* "That's true for you but not for me."...
, and knowledge.
Rhetoric of science, as a branch of inquiry, does not look at scientific (natural science) texts as a transparent means of conveying knowledge, but rather it looks at these texts as exhibiting persuasive structures. Although the natural sciences and humanities differ in a fundamental way, the enterprise of science can be viewed hermeneutically as a stream of texts which exhibit an epistemology based on understanding (Gross “On the Shoulders 21). Its task then is the rhetorical reconstruction of the means by which scientists convince themselves and others that their knowledge claims and assertions are an integral part of privileged activity of the community of thinkers with which they are allied (Gross “The Origin” 91).
In an article titled “On Viewing Rhetoric as Epistemic” (1967),
Robert ScottRobert, Bob or Bobby Scott may refer to:*Robert Scott , colonial administrator*Robert Falcon Scott , British Royal Navy officer and Antarctic explorer, narrowly failed to be the first to reach the South Pole...
offers “that truth can arise only from cooperative critical inquiry” (Harris “Knowing” 164). Scott’s probe of the issues of belief, knowledge and argumentation substantiates that rhetoric is epistemic. This
train of thoughtThe train of thought, stream of thought, or chain of thought refers to the interconnection in the sequence of ideas expressed during a connected discourse or thought, as well as to the sequence itself, especially in discussion how this sequence leads from one idea to another.When a reader or...
goes back to Gorgias who noted that truth is a product of discourse, not a substance added to it (Harris “Knowing” 164).
Scientific discourse is built on accountability of empirical fact which is presented to a scientific community. Each form of communication is a type of genre that fosters human interaction and relations. An example is the emerging form of the experimental report (Bazerman “Reporting” 171-176). The suite of genres to which the rhetoric of science comes to bear on health care and scientific communities is legion.
Aristotle could never accept the unavailability of certain knowledge, although most now believe the contrary (Gross “On Shoulders” 20). That is to say, Aristotle would have rejected the central concern of rhetoric of science: knowledge (Gross "Rhetoric of Science,"
Encyclopedia 622). Knowing itself generates the explanation of knowing, and this is the domain of the
theory of knowledgeEpistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge...
. The knowledge of knowledge compels an attitude of vigilance against the temptation of certainty (
MaturanaHumberto Maturana is a Chilean biologist and philosopher. He is considered a member of the second wave of cybernetics, known for developing a theory of autopoiesis about the nature of reflexive feedback control in living systems.- Biography :After completing secondary school at the Liceo Manuel de...
239-245).
The claim of the epistemic problematic of rhetoric of science concerns:
- truth - property of statements with respect to other statements
- knowledge - configuration of mutually supporting true statements
- arguments - are situational (first principle of rhetoric)
(Harris "Knowing" 180-181).
Argument fields
By the 1980s,
Stephen Toulmin’sStephen Edelston Toulmin is a British philosopher, author, and educator. Influenced by the Austrian born British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, Toulmin devoted his works to the analysis of moral reasoning. Throughout his writings, he seeks to develop practical arguments which can be used...
work on argument fields published in his book titled
The Uses of Argument (1958) came to prominence through rhetorical societies such as the Speech Communication Association which adopted a sociological view of science. Toulmin's main contribution is his notion of argument fields that saw a reinvention of the rhetorical concept topoi (topics) (Harris “Intro” Landmark xxi).
Toulmin discusses at length the pattern of an
argument* In logic, an argument is a set of one or more meaningful declarative sentences known as the premises along with another meaningful declarative sentence known as the conclusion...
– data and warrants to support a claim – and how they tend to vary across argument fields (Toulmin 1417-1422). He delineated two concepts of argumentation, one which relied on universal (field-invariant) appeals and strategies, and one which was field dependent, particular to disciplines, movements, and the like. For Toulmin, audience is important because one speaks to a particular audience at a particular point in time, and thus an argument must be relevant to that audience. In this instance, Toulmin echoes
FeyerabendPaul Karl Feyerabend was an Austrian-born philosopher of science best known for his work as a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked for three decades...
, who in his preoccupation with suasive processes, makes clear the adaptive nature of
persuasionPersuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding people and oneself toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic means. It is a strategy of problem-solving relying on "appeals" rather than coercion...
(Harris “Intro” Landmark xxv).
Toulmin's ideas pertaining to argument were a radical import to
argumentation theoryArgumentation theory, or argumentation, is the study of how humans can, do, and should reach conclusions through logical reasoning, that is, claims based on premises. It includes the arts and sciences of civil debate, dialogue, conversation, and persuasion...
because, in part, he contributes a model, and because he contributes greatly to rhetoric and its subfield, rhetoric of science, by providing a model of analysis (data, warrants) to show that what is argued on a subject is in effect a structured
arrangement of values that are purposive and lead to a certain line of thought.
Toulmin showed in
Human Understanding that the arguments that would support claims as different as the Copernican revolution and the Ptolemaic revolution would not require mediation. On the strength of argument, men of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries converted to Copernican astronomy (Gross “The Rhetoric” 214).
Incommensurability
The rhetorical challenge today is to find discourse that crosses disciplines without sacrificing the specifics of each discipline. The aim is to render description of these disciplines intact – that is to say, the goal of finding language that would make various scientific fields “commensurable” (Baake 29). In contrast, Incommensurability is the term used to describe a situation where two scientific programs are fundamentally at odds. Two important voices who applied incommensurability to historical and philosophical notions of science in the 1960s are Thomas Kuhn and
Paul FeyerabendPaul Karl Feyerabend was an Austrian-born philosopher of science best known for his work as a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked for three decades...
. Various strands grew out of this idea that bear on issues of communication and invention. These strands are explicated in Randy Allen Harris’s four-part
taxonomyTaxonomy is the practice and science of classification. The word finds its roots in the Greek , taxis and , nomos...
that in turn foregrounds his viewpoint that “incommensurability is best understood not as a relation between systems, but as a matter of rhetorical invention and hermeneutics” (Harris “Incommensurability” 1).
Incommensurability of theory at times of radical theory change is at the heart of Thomas Samuel Kuhn’s theory of paradigms (Bazerman 1). Kuhn's
Structure of Scientific Revolutions offers a vision of scientific change that involves persuasion, and thus he brought rhetoric to the heart of scientific studies (Harris "Intro,"
Landmark xiii).
Kuhn’s
Structure provides important accounts related to the concept
representationRepresentation can refer to:* Representation , one's ability to influence the political process* Representative democracy* Representation, a type of Diplomatic mission...
, and the key conceptual changes that occur during a
scientific revolutionIn the history of science, the scientific revolution was a period when new ideas in physics, astronomy, biology, human anatomy, chemistry, and other sciences led to a rejection of doctrines that had prevailed from Ancient Greece through the Middle Ages, and laid the foundation of modern science...
. Kuhn sought to determine ways of representing concepts and taxonomies by frames (Barker 224-230). Kuhn's work attempts to show that incommensurable paradigms can be rationally compared by revealing the compatibility of attribute lists of say a species outlined in a pre-Darwinian and a post-Darwinian milieu accounted for in two incommensurable taxonomies, and that this compatibility is the platform for rational comparison between rival taxonomies (Barker 230-231). With a view to comparing normal science to revolutionary science, Kuhn illustrates his theory of paradigms and theory of concepts within the history of electricity, chemistry and other disciplines. He gives attention to the revolutionary changes that came about as a result of the work of Copernicus, Newton, Einstein,
RoentgenRöntgen or Roentgen may refer to:* Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, German physicist* Abraham Röntgen and David Röntgen, German cabinetmakers* Julius Röntgen, German-Dutch composer...
, and Lavoisier.
Kuhn's work was influential for rhetoricians, sociologists, and historians (and, in a more muted way, philosophers) for the development of a rhetorical perspective. His view on perception, concept acquisition and language suggest, according to Paul Hoyningen-Huene’s analysis of Kuhn’s philosophy, a cognitive perspective (Nickles 183).
Ethos
Scientists are not just persuaded by
logos' is an important term in philosophy, analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion.Heraclitus established the term in Western philosophy as meaning both the source and fundamental order of the cosmos....
or argument. Innovative initiatives in science test scientific authority by invoking the authority of past results (initial section of a scientific paper) and the authority of procedure, which establish the scientist's credibility as an investigator (Gross
Starring 26-27).
Examinations of the
ethosEthos is a Greek word originally meaning "accustomed place" , "custom, habit", equivalent to Latin mores....
of scientists (individually and collectively) spawned significant contributions in the field of rhetoric of science. Michael Halloran notes in “The Birth of Molecular Biology” (
Rhetoric Review 3, 1984) – an essay that is a rhetorical analysis of
James D. WatsonJames Dewey Watson, born April 6, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, is an American molecular biologist, best known as one of the two co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, with Francis Crick in 1953...
and Francis H. Crick’s “A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid” – that a large part of what constitutes a scientific paradigm is the ethos of its practitioners. This ethos is about an attitude and a way of attacking problems and propagating claims (Harris "Intro,"
Landmark xxxi).
In "The Rhetorical Construction of Scientific Ethos," Lawrence Prelli provides a systematic analysis of ethos as a tool of scientific legitimation. Prelli's work examines the exchange of information in the court of public opinion. His work provides insight into the ways in which scientific argumentation is legitimized, and thus insight into public science policy. One of the domains of rhetoric is civic life. Rhetorical criticism of science offers much in the investigation of scientific matters that impinge directly upon public opinion and policy-making decisions (Harris "Intro,"
Landmark xxxiii).
Rhetorical figures in science
Corresponding to distinct lines of reasoning, figures of speech are evident in scientific arguments. The same cognitive and verbal skills that are of service to one line of inquiry – political, economic or popular – are of service to science (Fahnestock 43). This implies that there is less of a division between science and the humanities than initially anticipated. Argumentatively useful figures of speech are found everywhere in scientific writing.
Theodosius DobzhanskyTheodosius Grygorovych Dobzhansky, also known as T. G. Dobzhansky, and sometimes Anglicized to Theodore Dobzhansky was a noted geneticist and evolutionary biologist, and a central figure in the field of evolutionary biology for his work in shaping the unifying modern evolutionary...
in
Genetics and the Origin of SpeciesGenetics and the Origin of Species is a 1937 book by the Ukrainian-American evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky and one of the important books of the modern evolutionary synthesis...
offers a means of reconciliation between Mendelian mutation and Darwinian
natural selectionNatural selection is the process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce become more common in a population over successive generations...
. By remaining sensitive to the interests of naturalists and geneticists, Dobzhansky – through a subtle strategy of
polysemyPolysemy is the capacity for a sign or signs to have multiple meanings , i.e., a large semantic field. This is a pivotal concept within social sciences, such as media studies and linguistics.-Polysemes:A polyseme is a word or phrase with multiple, related meanings...
– allowed a peaceful solution to a battle between two scientific territories. His expressed aim was to review the genetic information bearing on the problem of organic diversity (Ceccarelli 41, 53). The building blocks of Dobzhansky’s interdisciplinary influence that saw much development in two scientific camps were the result of the compositional choices he made. He uses, for instance, prolepsis to make arguments that introduced his research findings, and he provided a metaphoric map as a means to guide his audience (Ceccarelli 57-58). One illustration of metaphor is his use of the term "adaptive landscapes." Seen metaphorically, this term is a way of representing how theorists in two different fields can unite (Ceccarelli 57).
Another figure that is important as an aid to understanding and knowledge is
antimetaboleIn rhetoric, antimetabole is the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed grammatical order...
(refutation by reversal).
AntithesisAntithesis is a counter-proposition and denotes a direct contrast to the original proposition...
also works toward a similar end.
An example of antimetabole:
- Antimetabole often appears in writing or visuals where the line of inquiry and experiment has been characterized by mirror-image objects, or of complementarity, reversible or equilibrium processes. Louis Pasteur's revelation that many organic compounds come in left-and right-handed versions or isomers as articulated at a 1883 lecture illustrates the use of this figure. He argues in lecture that "life is the germ and the germ is life" because all life contains unsymmetrical/asymmetrical processes (Fahnestock 137-140).
Globalization of rhetoric
Renewed interest today in rhetoric of science is its positioning as a hermeneutic meta-discourse rather than a substantive discourse practice (Gaonkar 25).
ExegesisExegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text.Biblical exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of the Bible. The goal of Biblical exegesis is to find the meaning of the text which then leads to discovering its significance or relevance.Traditionally the term exegesis...
and hermeneutics are the tools around which the idea of scientific production has been forged.
Criticism of rhetoric of science is mainly limited to discussions around the concept of hermeneutics, which can be seen as follows:
- Rhetorical hermeneutics is about a way of reading texts as rhetoric. Rhetoric is both a discipline and a perspective from which disciplines can be viewed. As a discipline, it has a hermeneutic task and generates knowledge; as a perspective, it has the task of generating new points of view (Gross Rhetorical 111). Whether rhetorical theory can function as a general hermeneutic, a key to all texts, including scientific texts, is still today a point of interest to rhetoricians. Although natural sciences and humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines which study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytic, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural and social sciences....
differ in fundamental ways, science as enterprise can be viewed hermeneutically as a suite of texts exhibiting a study of knowledge (epistemology) based on understanding (Gross “On Shoulders” 21).
A recent critique about the rhetoric of science literature asks not if science is understood properly, but rather if rhetoric is understood properly. This dissension centres around the reading of scientific texts rhetorically; it is a quarrel about how rhetorical theory is seen as a global hermeneutic (Gross “Intro”
Rhetorical 1-13).
Dilip Gaonkar in "The Idea of Rhetoric in the Rhetoric of Science" looks at how critics argue about rhetoric, and he unfolds the global ambitions of rhetorical theory as a general hermeneutic (a master key to all texts), with the rhetoric of science as a perfect site of analysis - a hard and fast case.
In his analysis of this 'case', Gaonkar looks at rhetoric's essential character first in traditional sense (Aristotilean and Ciceronian). Then he looked at the practice of rhetoric and the model of persuasive speech from the point of agency (productive orientation) or who controls the speech (means of communication). The rhetorical tradition is one of practice, while the theory evinces practice and teaching (Gross "Intro"
Rhetorical 6-11). Gaonkar asserts that rhetoric seen as a tradition (Aristotilean and Ciceronia), and from the point of view of interpretation (not production or agency), rhetorical theory is "thin." He argues that rhetoric appears as a thinly veiled language of criticism in such a way that it is applicable to almost any discourse (Gaonkar 33, 69).
Gaonkar believes that this type of globalization of rhetoric undermines rhetoric’s self-representation as a situated practical art, and in so doing, it runs counter to a humanist tradition. It runs counter to the interpretative function of a critical metadiscourse. If there is no more substance, no anchor, no reference to which rhetoric is attached, rhetoric itself is the substance, or the supplement, and thus becomes substantial, giving rise to the question how well rhetoric functions as interpretative
discourseDiscourse means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion of debate." The term is often used in semantics and discourse analysis....
(Gaonkar 77).
Dilip Gaonkar’s provocations have successfully opened the way to a broad reaching discussion that led to the defense of rhetoric analyses of scientific discourse. Responses to Gaonkar's provocations are many, of which two examples follow.
- When Gaonkar asks if a theory grounded in practice can be translated into a theory of interpretation, Michael Leff in "The Idea of Rhetoric as Intepretative Practice: A Humanist's Response to Gaonkar" see his views as too extreme, treating as opposites two positions that are in dialectic tension (rhetoric as production and rhetoric as interpretation), and separating interpretation from practice in order to establish a causal, rather than accidental, relationship between rhetoric and the globalalization of rhetoric (Gross "Intro" Rhetorical 11).
- John Angus Campbell in "Strategic Readings: Rhetoric, Intention, and Interpretation" also found in Rhetorical Hermeneutics is a verification of Leff's analysis (113). He argues, however, against Gaonkar's notion of invention and the mediation between producer or writer and the audience of a text(114). The differences between Campbell and Gaonkar is one of theory, and not whether agency figures in criticism (115).
Radical Rhetoric of Science
The radical approach to rhetoric of science looks at the rhetorical process itself, and as such, it involves treating scientific texts as an object of rhetorical scrutiny. This approach considers how the methods of natural sciences came into being, and the particular role interaction among scientists has to play. Radical rhetoric of science of a feminist variety include those proponents see the progress of the natural sciences as having been purchased at a high cost, a cost that limits the scope and vision of science. The other branch of radical rhetoric of science is of the epistemological variety (Gross "Rhetoric of Science,"
Encyclopedia 623-625). Radical rhetoric of science does not require a radical departure of rhetoric of science in relation to persuasion. In the past fifteen years, books written by
Bruno LatourBruno Latour is a French sociologist of science, anthropologist and an influential theorist in the field of Science and Technology Studies...
,
Steve WoolgarStephen Woolgar is a British sociologist. He has worked closely with Bruno Latour, with whom he co-authored Laboratory Life: the Social Construction of Scientific Facts ....
and Alan Gross ("The Rhetoric of Science"), contain as their subject the generalization of the radical critique.
The question as to the adequacy of rhetoric in its encounter with scientific texts (natural sciences) is problematic on two fronts. The first concerns traditional rhetoric and its capacity as a tool to analyze scientific texts. Secondly, the answer to the question relies on an attack of the epistomological presuppositions of a classical rhetoric of science. For this reason, the radical critique is a call for the renewal of rhetorical theory (Gross "Rhetoric of Science,"
Encyclopedia 626-627).
Prospects
For rhetoric of science to grow, "it must seek consistent and revealing accounts of
why science is rhetorical" (Harris "Knowing" 181). A path is thus open for future research.
See also
- Argumentation
- Classification
Classification may refer to:* Library classification and classification in general* Taxonomic classification* Biological classification of organisms* Medical classification* Scientific classification * Classification...
- Contingency
- Epistemology
Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge...
- Falsifiability
Falsifiability is the logical possibility that an assertion can be shown false by an observation or a physical experiment. That something is "falsifiable" does not mean it is false; rather, that if it is false, then this can be shown by observation or experiment. Falsifiability is an important...
- Figure of Speech
A figure of speech is a use of a word that diverges from its normal meaning, or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it such as a metaphor, simile, or personification. Figures of speech often provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity...
- Gödel's incompleteness theorem
- Hans-Georg Gadamer
Hans-Georg Gadamer was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 magnum opus, Truth and Method .- Life :...
- Inventio
Inventio is the system or method used for the discovery of arguments in Western rhetoric and comes from the Latin word, meaning "invention" or "discovery"...
- Logos
' is an important term in philosophy, analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion.Heraclitus established the term in Western philosophy as meaning both the source and fundamental order of the cosmos....
- Tropes
In linguistics, trope is a rhetorical figure of speech that consists of a play on words, i.e., using a word in a way other than what is considered its literal or normal form...
- Truth
Truth can have a variety of meanings, from the state of being the case, being in accord with a particular fact or reality, being in accord with the body of real things, events, actuality, or fidelity to an original or to a standard. In archaic usage it could be fidelity, constancy or sincerity in...
Works cited
- Baake, Ken. Metaphor and Knowledge: The Challenges of Writing Science. Albany: The State University of New York Press, 2003.
- Barker, Peter, Xiang Chen and Hanne Andersen. “Kuhn on Concepts and Categorization.” In Thomas Kuhn. Ed. Thomas Nickles. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003.
- Bazerman, Charles and René Agustin De los Santos. "Measuring Incommensurability: Are toxicology and ecotoxicology blind to what the other sees?" 9 January 2006. http://www.education.ucsb.edu/~bazerman/30.toxicology.doc.
- Bazerman, Charles. “Reporting the Experiment: The Changing Account of Scientific Doings in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1665-1800." In Landmark Essays on Rhetoric of Science: Case Studies. Ed. Randy Allen Harris. Mahwah: Hermagoras Press, 1997.
- Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Rhetoric: The Quest for Effective Communication. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
- Campbell, John Angus. "Scientific Discovery and Rhetorical Invention." In The Rhetorical Turn: Inventions and Persuasion in the Conduct of Inquiry. Ed. Herbert W. Simons. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990.
- Ceccarelli, Leah. Shaping Science with Rhetoric: The Cases of Dobzhansky, Schrödinger, and Wilson. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001.
- Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1989.
- Fahnestock, Jeanne. Rhetorical Figures in Science. New York: Oxford UP, 1999.
- Feyerabend, Paul. Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge. London: Verso, 1975.
- Gaonkar, Dilip Parameshwar. “The Idea of Rhetoric in the Rhetoric of Science.” In Rhetorical Hermeneutics: Invention and Interpretation in the Age of Science. Eds. Alan G. Gross and William M. Keith. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.
- Gross, Alan G. "On the Shoulders of Giants: Seventeenth-Century Optics as an Argument Field." In Landmark Essays on Rhetoric of Science: Case Studies. Ed. Randy Allen Harris. Mahwah: Hermagoras Press, 1997.
- Gross, Alan G., Starring The Text: The Place of Rhetoric in Science Studies. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2006.
- Gross, Alan G. "The Origin of Species: Evolutionary Taxonomy as an Example of the Rhetoric of Science". In The Rhetorical Turn: Invention and Persuasion in the Conduct of Inquiry. Ed. Herbert W. Simons. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990.
- Gross, Alan G. The Rhetoric of Science. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1990.
- Gross, Alan G. "Rhetoric of Science." Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition: Communication from Ancient Times to the Information Age. New York: Garlnd Publishers, 1996.
- Gross A., and William M. Keith. Eds. "Introduction." Rhetorical Hermeneutics: Invention and Interpretation in the Age of Science. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.
- Harris, Randy Allen. “Knowing, Rhetoric, Science.” In Visions and Revisions: Continuity and Change in Rhetoric and Composition. Ed. James D. Williams. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2002.
- Harris, Randy Allen. Incommensurability. 3 February. 2006. http://www.incommensurability.com/.
- Harris, Randy Allen. "Introduction." Landmark Essays on Rhetoric of Science: Case Studies. Ed. Randy Allen Harris. Mahwah: Hermagoras Press, 1997.
- Jasinski, James. "Introduction." Sourcebook on Rhetoric: Key Concepts in Contemporary Rhetorical Studies. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2001.
- Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
- Maturana, Humberto R., and Varela, Francisco J. The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1987.
- Nickles, Thomas. "Normal Science: From Logic to Case-Based and Model-Based Reasoning." In Thomas Kuhn. Ed. Thomas Nickles. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003.
- Prelli, Lawrence J. A Rhetoric of Science: Inventing Scientific Discourse. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989.
- Toulmin, S.
Stephen Edelston Toulmin is a British philosopher, author, and educator. Influenced by the Austrian born British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, Toulmin devoted his works to the analysis of moral reasoning. Throughout his writings, he seeks to develop practical arguments which can be used...
"The Uses of Argument." In The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present. 2nd ed. Eds. Bizzell, Patricia and Bruce Herzberg. Boston: Bedford, 1990.
Other readings
- Bazerman, Charles. Shaping Written Knowledge: The Genre and Activity of the Experimental Article in Science. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. “Reporting the Experiment: The Changing Account of Scientific Doings in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1665-1800” by Charles Bazerman in Landmark Essays on Rhetoric of Science is found in chapter 3 of that text.
- Campbell, John Angus. "Scientific Revolution and the Grammar of Culture: The Case of Darwin's Origin." Quarterly Journal of Speech 72 (1986):351-376.
- Gaonkar, Dilip Parameshwar. "Rhetoric and Its Double: Reflections on the Rhetorical Turn in the Human Sciences." In The Rhetorical Turn: Invention and Persuasion in the Conduct of Inquiry. Ed. Herbert W. Simons. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990.
- Halloran, S. Michael and Annette Norris Bradford. "Figures of Speech in the Rhetoric of Science and Technology." Essays on Classical Rhetoric and Modern Discourse. Ed. Robert J. Connors et al. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984.
- Harris, Randy Allen. Ed. Rhetoric and Incommensurability. West Lafayette: Parlor Press, 2005.
- Latour, Bruno and Steve Woolgar. Laboratory Life: The Social Construction of Scientific Facts. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1979.
- Leff, Michael. "The Idea of Rhetoric as Interpretative Practice: A Humanist Response to Gaonkar." The Southern Communication Journal 58 (1993): 296-300.
- Miller, Carolyn. "Genre as Social Action." Quarterly Journal of Speech 70: 151-57.
- Schryer, Catherine F. "Genre Theory, Health-Care Discourse, and Professional Identity Formation." Journal of Business and Technical Communication 19.3 (2005):249-278.
- Scott, R. L. "On Viewing Rhetoric as Epistemic." Central States Speech Journal (1967) 18:9-16.
- Simpson, Thomas K. Figures of Thought: A Literary Appreciation of Maxwell's Treatise on Electricity and Mgnetism, 2005, Green Lion Press, ISBN 1-888009-31-4
- Waddell, Craig. "The Role of Pathos in the Decision-Making Process: A Study in the Rhetoric of Science Policy." Quarterly Journal of Speech 76 (1990): 381-400.
- Wander, Philip C. and Dennis Jaehne. "Prospects for 'a rhetoric of science.'" Social Epistemology 14.2/3 (2000): 211-233. 30 December. 2005. http://www.pitt.edu/~gordonm/Pubdeb/WanderJaehne.pdf (PDF file)
- Ziman, John (2000). Real Science: what it is, and what it means. Cambridge, Uk: Cambridge University Press.