Rhetorical Arguments Research Articles

Issue Fields and Echo Chambers: Increasing Field Contestation Fueled by Moral Emotions

We investigate how issue fields with increasing levels of contestation can develop into fields characterized by echo chambers. Studying the introduction of a controversial new approach to addiction services – harm reduction – we explain how proponents’ and opponents’ rhetorical arguments changed over time, transitioning the issue field through different configurations. Our findings reveal how field actors were initially differentiated by moral convictions, and as their expression of moral emotions became more intense, the two groups became increasingly divided and polarized in their views, leading to an issue field characterized by echo chambers. Through our analysis of archival materials and interview data, we explicate this process by identifying three phases of issue field transition: (1) Creating a moral emotional divide; (2) Intensifying antagonization; (3) Insulating against the other side. We contribute to the literature by presenting a model of change explaining how emotional rhetoric, together with different types of triggering events, can fuel increasing levels of contestation and drive the field toward developing echo chambers. Second, by taking a discursive view of issue fields with particular attention to rhetorical arguments, we provide foundational work for an institutional perspective on echo chamber – that echo chambers result from ongoing social processes where people encapsulate themselves based on a sense of right and wrong, in contrast to the predominant view of becoming trapped in an enclosed space. Third, through our focus on the role of moral emotions and how they can escalate in situations of contestation, we advance knowledge regarding the importance of emotions in field dynamics.

An abstract and structured account of dialectical argument strength

This paper presents a formal model of dialectical argument strength in terms of the number of ways in which an argument can be successfully attacked in expansions of an abstract argumentation framework. First a model is proposed that is abstract but designed to avoid overly limiting assumptions on instantiations or dialogue contexts. It is then shown that most principles for argument strength proposed in the literature fail to hold for the proposed notions of dialectical strength, which clarifies the rational foundations of these principles and highlights the importance of distinguishing between kinds of argument strength, in particular logical, dialectical and rhetorical argument strength. The abstract model is then instantiated with ASPIC+ to test the claim that it does not make overly limiting assumptions on the structure of arguments and the nature of their relations.

And That’s a Fact: A Rhetorical Perspective on the Role of Fact-Checkers

ABSTRACT Fact-checking initiatives have rapidly expanded worldwide with the overall aim of assessing the veracity of factual claims made in public. In this paper, we critique how the objectivity norm informs the current role perception of fact-checkers and suggest ways to reinterpret this perception through rhetorical argumentation theory. First, we point to research literature on fact-checking as a site in which role perceptions of fact-checkers and epistemological ideals are represented, (re)created and contested, marking out an objectivist role perception. Second, we highlight recent contributions from scholars who, like us, have noticed tensions between the objectivist role perception and role performances of fact-checkers and constructively recommended different ways of working around these tensions. In dialogue with these suggestions, we propose that rhetorical argumentation theory can be considered a supplementary resource to further advance epistemological discussions on the role perception of fact-checkers. In addition, the vocabulary from rhetorical argumentation theory holds potential for methodological operationalisation to guide the future role performances of fact-checkers. Finally, to develop our suggestion further, we propose a new research agenda embracing action-oriented research as an integrated way of developing fact-checkers’ role and practise together with practitioners.

Christopher Tindale: Exploring the Cultural Foundations of Rhetoric and Reason

The interview conducted with Christopher Tindale by Ruth Amossy in this special issue on “Challenging Rhetoric” proposes a survey of Tindale’s innovative work. Developing from Informal Logic to a theory of Rhetorical Argumentation, it eventually leads to an anthropological approach that challenges the Western rhetorical tradition. It assumes that ways of reasoning are culture-dependent and that arguments as reason-giving can take many forms beyond the ones described in the Western tradition. It thus tackles the question of cross-cultural communication in its argumentative dimension. In this framework it presents an “encounter rhetoric” exploring the encounter between people from very different cultures and looking at how a mutual cognitive environment is able, over time, to emerge and allow for argumentation.

Facts, values, and the epistemic authority of journalism: How journalists use and define the terms fake news, junk news, misinformation, and disinformation

Abstract In this article, we examine how journalists try to uphold ideals of objectivity, clarity, and epistemic authority when using four overlapping terms: fake news, junk news, misinformation, and disinformation. Drawing on 16 qualitative interviews with journalists in Denmark, our study finds that journalists struggle to convert the ideals of clarity and objectivity into a coherent conceptual practice. Across interviews, journalists disagree on which concepts to use and how to define them, accusing academics of producing too technical definitions, politicians of diluting meaning, and journalistic peers of being insufficiently objective. Drawing on insights from journalism scholarship and rhetorical argumentation theory, we highlight how such disagreements reveal a fundamental tension in journalistic claims to epistemic authority, causing a continuous search for unambiguous terms, which in turn produces the very ambiguity that journalists seek to avoid.

RHETORICAL IDEAL AND RHETORICAL IDENTITY. METHODS OF CREATING THE WORLD PICTURE IN ZHYRAU'S POETRY

The article deals with a topical problem - the study of cultural and national identity of Zhyrau poetry. The object of review is the techniques of creating the world picture. Attention is paid to the concepts of the rhetorical ideal and the rhetorical identity. The structure of the rhetorical ideal is analysed in its relation to the author's and national concept sphere. The national world picture is being studied from the position of cognitive methods of the poet's influence on the addressee. The systematisation of rhetorical arguments, strategies and techniques, rhetorical argumentative models is shown in the songs of Zhyrau - Shalkiyiz, Zhiyembet, Aktamberdy, Umbetey, Kaztugan, and Bukhar. Rhetorical word forms and statements have been analysed and their use in communication has been carried out. The scientific ideas of cultural memory have been developed to present a wide range of interpretations of the world in Zhyrau's poetry. The undertaken approach contributes to the understanding of the forms and ways of constructing cultural and national identity. By analysing the world picture in Zhyrau's poetry, it has been shown that the rhetorical ideal is built on the value ideas of the people about family, friendship and unity. The images of nature and the surrounding world explain the wide presence of antithesis, parallelism, and such units of rhetorical style as comparison, hyperbole, and epithets in the system of tropes. The presented experience contributes to the understanding of rhetorical identity and to the description of medieval Kazakh poetry in the aspect of identity.

Features of the use of critical thinking skills in countering manipulation in modern communication.

The subject of the study is critical thinking. The article is devoted to the study of the role of critical thinking in modern communication conditions. Particular attention is paid to the peculiarities of using critical thinking skills in countering manipulative influences both in the professional sphere and in personal communicative interaction. The article substantiates that critical thinking is one of the most important skills in the modern world; the importance of critical thinking skills for effectively processing large amounts of incoming information, as well as for building successful communication, is clarified; the specifics and features of the application of critical thinking skills in the context of communicative interaction are considered; the role of logical as well as rhetorical components in communication is substantiated; options for countering communicative manipulations and incorrect communicative influences are proposed. The article uses methods of comparative analysis, contextual analysis, synthesis, generalization, classification, as well as the logical method. The article proposes a division of communicative goals according to the type of statements. Particular attention is focused on analyzing the situation of the motivating communicative goal. The article clarifies the meaning of the following concepts: communication, 4K competencies, critical thinking, non-critical thinking, manipulation, logical, psychological and rhetorical argumentation strategies, communicative purpose, rhetoric, ad hominem arguments, ad rem arguments, deductive inferences, inductive inferences. The article proposes methods and tools for strengthening the skills of building effective communicative interaction. Methods of countering manipulative communicative influences are also analyzed both from the point of view of logical science and rhetorical skill. The article will be useful for both undergraduate and graduate students studying rhetoric, argumentation theory, communication techniques, and a wide range of readers.

Rationalising externally-driven change: Charities and the exploitation of new-practice requirements

Although legitimacy is critical when attempting to introduce new practices in the nonprofit charity sector, little is known about individual processes of legitimation within such organizations, and how legitimacy emerges and interacts with perceived external pressures. This article investigates how charity organizational actors (using rhetorical arguments) linguistically legitimate/delegitimate new practices as a means of facilitating internal and external legitimacy. The study explores, as an example of organizational change in its early stages, newly-introduced accountability and reporting practices emanating from the current Charity Statement of Recommended Practice in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The findings show that external regulative and cognitive pressures can be assessed and legitimated as something rational and reasonable in cases where organizational actors perceive the change as “exploitable.” Moreover, they provide evidence of how different interpretations can foster implementation and action (or trigger inaction) and affect the introduction of business-like practices in the nonprofit sector.

The Argumentative Function in the Poetry of Shihabuldeen Al-Azzazi (710 A.H)

Rhetorical argumentation theory is concerned with studying rhetorical techniques that aim to stimulate the minds of those being addressed, or to raise their support for the issues under discussion in order to reach general agreement. This theory is also concerned with examining and testing the conditions that help initiate and develop argumentation, and the effects resulting from it as well.

ESSENTIALISM AS THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATION OF AMERICAN CONVENTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (1969)

The article focuses on the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), known as the San José Pact of Costa Rica, because of its political and legal importance for protecting and promoting the Americas' rights. The objective is to analyze the consistency of the theoretical foundation of that human rights document. Therefore, we will first analyze the Convention's text and point out essentialism as the philosophical foundation. Then, we will discuss the essentialist assumption philosophically. Finally, the theoretical problem of essentialism as the foundation of the Convention will be analyzed in light of Sartre's existentialism. From the considerations presented, the philosophical foundation of the rights in the 1969 Convention, essentialism, is not theoretically consistent, despite being an indispensable rhetorical argument.

Failing or Prevailing? Russian Educational Discourse in the Israeli Academic Classroom

Abstract This article seeks to explore the ways in which Russian–Soviet educational discourse survives in Israeli universities by bringing its underlying cultural messages to Israeli students. It focuses on the interpretation of educational discursive perceptions and practices of Russian-speaking professors who teach at Israeli universities. The study suggests considering the manifestation of the Russian–Soviet educational scenario through its enforcement in the Russian linguistic repertoire of meta-class talk, in which the professors report on the educational modes of in-class interaction. The analysis reveals that immigrant university teachers adopt communicative strategies imbued with key Russian–Soviet educational messages making them a cultural resource in the Israeli academic context. Concomitantly, however, the professors’ voices seem to be opposed to local Israeli cultural perception and practice. The study therefore seeks to uncover how enacted patterns of educational style reflect the cross-cultural condition of the academic context. It adopts the communicative–pragmatic perspective and focuses on key cultural educational scripts, rhetorical argumentation strategies, and the realization of speech acts in the university interaction.

Athanasius Pulled Apart: Heresiology and the (Dis)membered (Fe)male Body

AbstractIn this article, I engage Athanasius of Alexandria’s invocation of the infamous dismemberment of the unnamed woman found in Judg 19. By the fourth century, this story of gang rape—along with other preserved stories of sexual violence—found in Judges, were scattered throughout early Christian literature. Judges 19 holds a particularly troubling history in the late ancient context. The story of the rape and dismemberment of the unnamed woman in Judg 19 gave life to another story and typified a style of writing that I characterize in the article as a heresiology. The spectacle of Judges, along with other gruesome deaths of women, was one way in which heresiological discourse frames rhetorical arguments for writers like Athanasius of Alexandria. Here, I purposely draw our attention to how Athanasian orthodoxy became reliant on gender-based violence.

Patria on stage: Cicero and the use of prosopopoeia

Ancient rhetoricians knew how important the use of theatrical techniques was to increase the persuasive effect of rhetorical arguments. Therefore, training with theatrical techniques of voice modulation, breathing exercises and physical exercises was strongly recommended. This way the orator became similar to the histrio, because both shared the actio. Cicero himself puts these theoretical precepts into practice, in his intense oratorical activity, by impersonating the characters he defends or accuses, reproducing their words, revealing their character, as if he were performing on stage. Quintilian recognizes Cicero's mastery in playing parts even in the first speech against Catiline in the Senate, when Cicero plays the part of an abstract entity, Patria, the Fatherland (Cic.Catil.1,18 and 1,27-29): the theatrical fiction of prosopopoeia supports Cicero’s rhetorical and political strategy. He has more effective influence on the audience and persuades them to act harshly against Catiline

ПАРЕМІОЛОГІЙНІ ОДИНИЦІ В СУЧАСНОМУ ГАЗЕТНОМУ ДИСКУРСІ УКРАЇНИ ВОЄННОГО ПЕРІОДУ: ПРАГМАТИЧНИЙ ЕФЕКТ

There is no doubt about the relevance of the study of language units of paremia in the Ukrainian-language newspaper discourse, because this topic is little studied in the scientific works of linguists. In our study, we interpret newspaper discourse as a complex mental and sociocultural phenomenon, pragmatic in its expressive representations, complex in content and construction structure due to the need to reflect information about the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine. The modern newspaper text of the war period is a vivid representative of the use of paremiological units, which testify to an extremely expressive atmosphere in the information space and explain the national potentials and originality of the native language. A significant feature of the activation of paremia in journalism is that the modern newspaper text becomes more readable, harmonious, ethnically marked, attractive, with bright expressive semantic and stylistic shades of appreciation, relies on the popular phraseological trends of Ukrainians to express reality. In our study, paremias are understood as linguistic units with a pragmatic effect, which form a functionally productive source of expressions for uncontrollable emotions, excitement and upheavals, most fully reflect the tragedy of modern realities of war, express a positive or negative social/authorial assessment of the depicted events. Paremiological units are powerful repeaters of national culture, they contain the genetic code of the people, ethnic group, nation, so journalists use paremiological material as an effective way of rhetorical argumentation, an authoritative source of folk wisdom, to finally convince the audience, emotionally impress them, make them believe and trust the author. We have proven that the array of paremias in newspaper texts ensures the success of the communicative act, because it contributes to the process of mental encoding and decoding of information, the levelling of communication barriers, the popularization of Ukrainian culture, and the expression of intellectual thought. The newspaper discourse of the war period appears as a vivid representative of the mentality and a powerful source of broadcasting the national code of the Ukrainian ethnos.

Topoi and Toponyms: The Rhetoric of the City in Isa 1 and Assyrian Imperial Practices

Abstract The influence of Assyrian ideology on First Isaiah has received extensive treatment over the past few decades. I present another possible datum to explain a rhetorical argument that unfolds in Isa 1:21–28 through the addition of the later supplement in vv. 29–31, namely the shift in Jerusalem from being labeled a »faithful city« to an »unfaithful city«. In light of the political grounding of the passage, the historical backdrop of the intermittent Assyrian practice of changing the toponyms of subjugated cities becomes more transparently important for unlocking the meaning and significance of this passage.

Особенности обучения студентов юридических факультетов основам профессионально-ориентированной аргументации в рамках дисциплины «Риторика»

This article substantiates the necessity to teach rhetoric as a professionally oriented discipline at the law university as this discipline is aimed at improving communication skills of future lawyers. The analysis of the Federal State Educational Standard on juridical branches proves that a future lawyer must have not only juridical skills but rhetorical ones which are realized on speech basis. This fact demands the detailed description of rhetoric role in the process of future specialist’s communicative competence formation and the complete explanation of the strategies and methods for achieving the expected results. The scientific novelty of the study consists in characterizing the ways of the formation of professional communicative skills in the course of rhetoric at the law faculty by the example of the topic ‘Argumentation’. As a result, the necessity of using the competence-based approach when teaching rhetorical argumentation at the law faculty of a university is substantiated; the author identified the argumentation aspects which should be learned by all the future lawyers and the argumentation aspects which are relevant for studying by the students of some special legal profile.

The Case of Lucretia - Symbolizing the Political Reality

The myth of Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, raped by Sextus Tarquinius – the son of the last Roman king – is very influential in the Classical and Medieval literature, likewise in the Modern times in the different fields of science and art. Its pristine form is now lost in the distant past and it is possible to compare the sources to see several layers of its political, legal, and ethical interpretation. Following these elaborations, we find a history of different legal institutions and rhetoric argumentation. However, with the help of archaeological findings some elements of its historical image starts to appear being the model family values and religious beliefs built in the foundation of common cultural forms in Italy.

“They Don’t Choose the Times...”: an Essay on the Alexander Kushner’s Doxa and Paradoxes (Idiomatics and Ideology)

The article is focused on the Alexander Kushner’s poem “They don’t Choose the Times...”. We analyze the whole text and its first lines “They don't choose the times, / They live and die in them”, which have been fixed in the Russian proverbial and quotation fund. Based on the linguistic analysis of the text, in particular, on the idiomatic approach, I attempt to deconstruct the poem. As it is shown, the key maxim oscillates between universal and situational meaning. The text of the poem realizes a rhetorical system of arguments to accept modernity and turns the paradoxical maxim into a rhetorical argument. The final stanza deserves special attention. The phrase from the criminal procedural discourse “to take fingerprints” plays the main role in it. The use of this figure of speech betrays the subject’s specific understanding of history and modernity. The system of text arguments appears to be disordered and contradictory. In my opinion, it can be explained by the traumatic nature of the Stalin’s era. The subject convinces to accept modernity not an imaginary interlocutor (a reader) as of himself, because he feels the danger of political persecution for having different views. The linguistic analysis of the poem “They don't Choose the Times... ” allows us to attribute this text to the official Soviet poetry only judging by immanent features.

Poésie-danger or the Power of Contestation in Assia Djebar’s Loin de Médine

It is in response to the brutal repression of the 1990s, as well as the colonial period and the post-independence regime in Algeria, that Assia Djebar’s novel Loin de Médine stands as a piece of committed literature that especially praises women’s voices against all forms of domination based on gender power dynamics. This article examines how Djebar advances a broader understanding of women’s agency by reviving some historical narratives from the Arab/Islamic world to open a wide horizon of possibilities for Muslim women’s voices. First, it demonstrates how these women used the power of speech—whether poetry or rhetorical argumentation—to assert their voices. Then it examines the chain of transmission established among these women as a way of validating their words. By reinterpreting a version of the history of the earliest Muslims, assumed as undisputable over time, Loin de Médine challenges the limitations enforced by the religious exegesis and patriarchal discourses, thus destabilizing the gender hierarchy encrypted in them.

The Civil Sphere and Social Class

How can civil sphere theory contribute to class analysis? In contrast to critics who suggest Jeffrey Alexander’s The Civil Sphere does not take class seriously, this paper argues that class is a central component to both the rhetorical argument and empirical justification of the text. Through a new reading of the book’s discussions and references to class, this paper provides the rudiments for a new civil sphere theory of social class. The paper first demonstrates how Alexander uses social class as a rhetorical foil against instrumentalist, class-centric models of civil society. Second, the paper elaborates on the obscured but rich set of references to historical cases of class formation to push civil sphere theory towards attending to the creative discursive and institutional action of class movements in the civil sphere. Third, the paper develops Alexander’s concept of ‘refraction’ and argues that the ways in which class communities create new cultures better explains the relationship between classes and the civil sphere. In the conclusion, the paper offers two directions for a civil sphere theory of class – a realist one which posits social classes are products of the economy and then become meaningfully civil as they approach the civil sphere; and an interpretivist one which posits that classes are already-meaningful structures in both the economy and the civil sphere, leading to an open-ended transformation of both.