Description
Book SynopsisPhilosophy and rhetoric are both old enemies and old friends. In The Rhetorical Sense of Philosophy, Donald Phillip Verene sets out to shift our understanding of the relationship between philosophy and rhetoric from that of separation to one of close association. He outlines how ancient rhetors focused on the impact of language regardless of truth, ancient philosophers utilized language to test truth; and ultimately, this separation of right reasoning from rhetoric has remained intact throughout history. It is time, Verene argues, to reassess this ancient and misunderstood relationship. Verene traces his argument utilizing the writing of ancient and modern authors from Plato and Aristotle to Descartes and Kant; he also explores the quarrel between philosophy and poetry, as well as the nature of speculative philosophy. Verene''s argument culminates in a unique analysis of the frontispiece as a rhetorical device in the works of Hobbes, Vico, and Rousseau. Verene bridges the stu
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Verene presents an extended original essay on one of the oldest of philosophical themes, the relationship between rhetoric and philosophy. With great subtlety and enormous erudition, the author challenges the "Platonic quarrel with the poets and the rhetoricians".
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Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Rhetorical Sense of Philosophy
Part I: Prolegomena Philosophiae
1. Philosophical Thinking
2. Philosophy and the Muses
3. Philosophy and Eloquence
4. Philosophical Style
Part II: Three Rhetorics
5. The Rhetoric of Self-Discourse
6. The Rhetoric of Absolute Thought
7. The Rhetoric of the Philosophical Frontispiece
Epilogue
