Immanuel Kant is rarely connected to rhetoric by those who study philosophy or the rhetorical tradition. If anything, Kant is said to see rhetoric as mere manipulation and as not worthy of attention. In Kant and the Promise of Rhetoric, Scott Stroud presents a first-of-its-kind reappraisal of Kant and the role he gives rhetorical practices in his philosophy. By examining the range of terms that Kant employs to discuss various forms of communication, Stroud argues that the general thesis that Kant disparaged rhetoric is untenable. Instead, he offers a more nuanced view of Kant on rhetoric and its relation to moral cultivation. For Kant, certain rhetorical practices in education, religious settings, and public argument become vital tools to move humans toward moral improvement without infringing on their individual autonomy. Through the use of rhetorical means such as examples, religious narratives, symbols, group prayer, and fallibilistic public argument, individuals can persuade other agents to move toward more cultivated states of inner and outer autonomy. For the Kant recovered in this book, rhetoric becomes another part of human activity that can be animated by the value of humanity, and it can serve as a powerful tool to convince agents to embark on the arduous task of moral self-cultivation.
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Examines Immanuel Kant's understanding of rhetoric. Argues that the general thesis that Kant disparaged rhetoric is untenable, and that communicative practices play an important role in his account of how we become better humans and create morally cultivating communities.
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Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: Kant and Rhetoric? 1. Tracing the Sources of Kant’s Apparent Animosity to Rhetoric 2. Kant on Beauty, Art, and Rhetoric 3. Freedom, Coercion, and the Search for the Ideal Community 4. Pedagogical Educative Rhetoric: Education, Rhetoric, and the Use of Example5. Religious Educative Rhetoric: Religion and Ritual as Rhetorical Means of Moral Cultivation 6. Critical Educative Rhetoric: Kant and the Demands of Critical CommunicationConclusion: Rhetorical Experience and the Promise of Rhetorical Practice NotesBibliography Index
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“A much-needed and important contribution to the field of Kantian studies. It expands the field of ‘impure ethics’ in new directions and will trigger renewed interest in this neglected dimension of ‘moral anthropology.’”—Pablo Muchnik Kant-Studien
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780271064208
Publisert
2016-02-15
Utgiver
Vendor
Pennsylvania State University Press
Vekt
499 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Dybde
18 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
288

Forfatter

Biographical note

Scott R. Stroud is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also the author of John Dewey and the Artful Life: Pragmatism, Aesthetics, and Morality (Penn State, 2011).