The Realm of Rhetoric / Edition 1

by Chaïm Perelman

Overview

The Realm of Rhetoric follows in the tradition of the author's The New Rhetoric, hailed for its wide-ranging and innovative approaches to argumentation. In this new study Chaim Perelman continues to develop his ideas on the theory of rhetoric, now even more cogently and persuasively presented. Pruned of much detail present in the earlier book, this new work captures the essence of his thought in a style and presentation suitable to the program and needs of an English-speaking audience. It is an ideal instruction medium for students approaching theories of informal argumentation for the first time. Perelman raises the questions, "How do claims to reasonableness arise in prose that is not formally logical?" and "What does 'reasonableness' mean for some who speaks of 'reasonable men' or 'beyond reasonable doubt'?" He then shows how claims to rationality are embedded in a number of verbal structures heretofore considered exclusively ornamental or dispositional. He identifies and discusses many argumentative techniques in addition to the quasi-logical methods conventionally treated in textbooks and notes numerous subforms of argumentation within each of the general types he identifies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780268016050
Publisher:	University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date:	09/30/1982
Edition description:	1
Pages:	206
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 0.48(d)

About the Author

Chaim Perelman (1912–1984) was a professor at the University of Brussels and an internationally recognized expert on rhetoric..

Editorial Reviews

One cannot help but admire and learn from [Perelman’s] clear, comprehensive, and wise thinking on argumentation, his spare yet never arid prose, and the quiet elegance of his book’s structure. This slim volume will amply reward reflective study by practitioner and theorist, freshman and emeritus.

Ethics

“The Realm of Rhetoric sets out the bare bones of Perelman’s map of human persuasion, including specific chapters on arguments from analogy, metaphor, the structure of reality, and so-called ‘quasi-logical’ arguments. In all these areas, he’s wonderfully concrete and clear.” —The Village Voice
 

“One cannot help but admire and learn from [Perelman’s] clear, comprehensive, and wise thinking on argumentation, his spare yet never arid prose, and the quiet elegance of his book’s structure. This slim volume will amply reward reflective study by practitioner and theorist, freshman and emeritus.” —Ethics
 

From the Publisher