Aristotle and Confucius on Rhetoric and Truth

The Form and the Way
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4724-8736-0
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 238 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 453 g

The current study argues that different cultures can coexist better today if we focus not only on what separates them but also on what connects them. To do so, the author discusses how both Aristotle and Confucius see rhetoric as a mode of thinking that is indispensable to the human understanding of the truths of things or dao-the-way, or, how both see the human understanding of the truths of things or dao-the-way as necessarily communal, open-ended, and discursive. Based on this similarity, the author aims to develop a more nuanced understanding of differences to help foster better cross-cultural communication. In making the argument, she critically examines two stereotyped views: that Aristotle’s concept of essence or truth is too static to be relevant to the rhetorical focus on the realm of human affairs and that Confucius’ concept of dao-the-way is too decentered to be compatible with the inferential/discursive thinking. In addition, the author relies primarily on the interpretations of the Analects by two 20th-century Chinese Confucians to supplement the overreliance on renderings of the Analects in recent comparative rhetorical scholarship. The study shows that we need an in-depth understanding of both the other and the self to comprehend the relation between the two.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lan, Haixia

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Griechische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Living the Form and Knowing the WaySimilarities and Differences Rhetoric and the Other Rhetoric and Truth Rhetoric and Sophistry A Twofold Argument Translations of Works by Aristotle and Confucius Chapter One: Aristotle and Rhetorical Invention: A Legacy of Probable InquiryEpisteme and Techne Sophistical Reasoning Dialectical Reasoning Both Sophistical and Dialectical Reasoning Classical Rhetoric Rhetorical Invention Today Conclusions Chapter Two: Interpreting the Analects: The Need to Address Rhetorical InventionConfucius and Rhetoric Confucius as a Rhetorician Confucius on Rhetorical Invention Studies of Confucius’ Analects Religious and Philosophical Interpretations Literary Interpretations Rhetorical Interpretations Two Approaches Difficulties with Focusing Exclusively on Differences Importance of Studying Differences within Cultures Conclusions Chapter Three: Rhetorical Probability: Form, Eikos, Tianming, and RendaoForm and Eikos in Aristotle: Truth, Form, and Logos Form, Logos, and Nous Form, Logos and Pa

Über Autor(innen)

Haixia W. Lan received her PhD in English from Purdue University with an emphasis on Rhetoric and Composition and Literary Theory. She works at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, teaching writing as a process of learning; theories of rhetorical invention; the grammar, politics, ethics of style; and comparative rhetoric. Her research is in all of these areas, and she is the academic director of 2+2 English degree program.