Rhetoric

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences

Kinds of Rhetoric

  • political rhetoric
  • presidential rhetoric
  • public rhetoric
  • war rhetoric


  • Selected Abstracts


    THE GEOGRAPHICAL DIMENSIONS OF AL-QA'IDA RHETORIC

    GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 3 2005
    JOSEPH J. HOBBS
    ABSTRACT. This article examines the geographical ideology of al-Qa'ida. The central questions are to what extent al-Qa'ida terrorism is motivated by a desire to control geographical space, and how the organization defines that space as place in its communiqués. The study also asks whether al-Qa'ida's geographical rhetoric reveals the nature or locations of future attacks. Principal sources are statements and interviews by and with al-Qa'ida leaders. al-Qa'ida classifies distinctive geographical realms of legitimization, preparation, and action. Its geographical concerns and ambitions are hierarchical and based principally on perceptions of sacred space. The holy places of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem are the cornerstones of a greater Islamic holy land that al-Qa'ida seeks to rid of non-Islamic-especially U.S. and "Zionist"-elements and replace with a new caliphate. Terrorism directed principally against American civilians in the United States is one of the main tactics by which al-Qa'ida says it hopes to achieve its goals in geographical space. [source]


    THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY AND THE RHETORIC OF EXCESS

    JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS ETHICS, Issue 1 2007
    Jeffrey Stout
    ABSTRACT If militarism violates the ideals of liberty and justice in one way, and rapidly increasing social stratification violates them in another, then American democracy is in crisis. A culture of democratic accountability will survive only if citizens revive the concerns that animated the great reform movements of the past, from abolitionism to civil rights. It is crucial, when reasoning about practical matters, not only to admit how grave one's situation is, but also to resist despair. Therefore, the fate of democracy depends, to some significant degree, on how we choose to describe the crisis. Saying that we have already entered the new dark ages or a post-democratic era may prove to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, because anyone who accepts this message is apt to give up on the hard work of organizing and contestation that is needed to hold political representatives accountable to the people. This paper asks how one might strike the right balance between accuracy and hope in describing the democracy's current troubles. After saying what I mean by democracy and what I think the current threats to it are, I respond to Romand Coles's criticisms of reservations I have expressed before about rhetorical excess in the works of Stanley Hauerwas, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Richard Rorty. This leads to a discussion of several points raised against me by Hauerwas. A digression offers some of my reasons for doubting that John Howard Yoder's biblical scholarship vindicates Hauerwas's version of pacifism. The paper concludes by arguing that Sheldon Wolin's work on the evisceration of democracy, though admirably accurate in its treatment of the dangers posed by empire and capital, abandons the project of democratic accountability too quickly in favor of the romance of the fugitive. [source]


    FROM LUTHER'S THEOLOGY OF THE CROSS TO NIETZSCHE'S PROBING FOR THE ÜBERMENSCH: GROWTH IN THE MODERN RHETORIC OF SELF-DOUBTING INTIMIDATION

    THE HEYTHROP JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009
    PATRICK MADIGAN
    First page of article [source]


    RHETORIC OF FAITH AND PATTERNS OF PERSUASION IN BERKELEY'S ALCIPHRON

    THE HEYTHROP JOURNAL, Issue 4 2006
    COSTICA BRADATAN
    In this article I consider George Berkeley's Alciphron (1732) from the standpoint of the literary techniques and rhetorical procedures employed, as evidence for placing this composition within the tradition of Christian apologetic rhetoric. The argument develops around three main issues: 1) Berkeley's employment of the traditional rhetorical tool of attacking his opponents using their own weapons; 2) Berkeley's resort to a perennial tradition of pre-Christian or non-Christian wisdom, in order to validate his Christian-theistic claims; and 3) Berkeley's ,argument from utility' (considering the beneficial effects that accepting Christianity has had over the centuries on people's lives, making them better, wiser, happier, and more virtuous, as well as the social peace and harmony that living by Christian standards brings about , it is preferable to adopt the Christian faith than not). These three theses are discussed in light of the history of Christian apologetic rhetoric, with references to the works of St. Augustine, St. Justin Martyr, Origen, St. Thomas Aquinas and other Christian authors. [source]


    LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION: RACE, RHETORIC, AND REALITYIN SOUTHERN POPULISM

    THE HISTORIAN, Issue 6 2003
    Irvin D. S. Winsboro
    First page of article [source]


    Rhetoric and Practice in English Teaching

    ENGLISH IN EDUCATION, Issue 1 2000
    Mary Bousted
    Abstract The empirical data collected for this article are derived from an analysis of the ideology and practice of English teachers working in three contrasting secondary schools. The analysis of the data reveals the following findings. The concept of personal growth, expressed in the pedagogy advocated by the London School, retains its ability to provide, for contemporary teachers of English, an underpinning rationale for their work. The pedagogical practices advocated by the London School writers - the use of oracy, the reading of contemporary children's literature and the drafting process - are supported by the respondents. Observation of lessons reveals that the respondents, through their use of mediating practices, are able to ,deliver' the cultural products of standard English and the literary canon in ways which retain elements of the process-based pedagogy advocated by the London School writers. The respondents do not, however, recognise this aspect of their classroom practice in their rhetorical representation of their work. The article concludes with the argument that the demand, by powerful external agencies, for the subject of English to furnish each new generation with icons of cultural stability in the form of spoken and written standard English and a knowledge of the literary heritage, has not declined. A less oppositional response on the part of English teachers to the demand that the subject deliver the cultural products outlined above, based upon a recognition of their use of mediating practices, may, it is argued, provide a means whereby the practitioners of the subject gain more control over its present condition and its future direction. [source]


    Delinquent Pedigrees: Revision, Lineage, and Spatial Rhetoric in The Duchess of Malfi

    ENGLISH LITERARY RENAISSANCE, Issue 3 2009
    Michelle M. Dowd
    Locating John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi within a cluster of early seventeenth-century concerns about legitimacy and hereditary succession, this essay traces the ways in which Webster strategically alters his primary narrative source, William Painter's The Palace of Pleasure, so as to expose rather than to suppress the indeterminacy of patrilineality. Webster's tragedy focuses specifically on a remarrying widow and her children, a particular social problem that makes visible the contradictions inherent to the early modern system of patrilineal inheritance. The action of the play thus stages the tensions between the dominant legal form of patrilineality and the material practices shaping and changing it. Drawing in part on the theories of Michel de Certeau, this essay takes a fresh critical approach to the play by placing particular emphasis on the distinctively spatialized aspects of Webster's dramaturgical rendering of his source material and noting the ways in which he uses the ideological and physical spaces of the stage to highlight the inscrutability of the succession. In addition, in its focus on Webster's revisions of Painter, the essay considers how drama as a genre can spatially reimagine the social relationships and possibilities for agency that are produced through patterns of hereditary succession. As such, The Duchess of Malfi serves as a useful case study for theorizing the narrative and dramaturgical methods by which patriarchy is constructed, contested, and reformulated in early modern English culture (M.M.D.). [source]


    Hall's Rhetoric of Performance

    ENGLISH LITERARY RENAISSANCE, Issue 1 2004
    JANETTE DILLON
    First page of article [source]


    Consumer-Driven Health Care,Beyond Rhetoric with Research and Experience

    HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 4p2 2004
    Anne K. Gauthier
    First page of article [source]


    The Way Out West: Development and the Rhetoric of Mobility in Postmodern Feminist Theory

    HYPATIA, Issue 3 2000
    ELIZABETH A. PRITCHARDArticle first published online: 9 JAN 200
    In this essay, I trace a rhetorical affinity between feminist postmodern theory and an Enlightenment narrative of development. This affinity consists in the valorization of mobility and the repudiation of locatedness. Although feminists deploy this rhetoric in order to accommodate differences and to accustom readers to the instability that results from such accommodation, I show how this rhetoric works to justify Western colonial development and to efface women's very different experiences of mobility in the early twenty-first century. [source]


    The influence of HIV/AIDS on the practice of primary care nurses in Jordan: Rhetoric and reality

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING PRACTICE, Issue 5 2005
    Hani Nawafleh PhD(Cand)
    The role of nurses in raising community awareness about HIV/AIDS is well-reported. However, little is known about the practice of Jordanian nurses and the role they play in the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. This interpretive ethnographic study sought to illuminate the role of primary care nurses and examine the influence of HIV/AIDS on their practice. The study was undertaken in Jordan in three rural and three urban primary health-care centres. Data collection included participant observation, key informant interviews and document analysis. These data informed the development of descriptive ethnographic accounts that allowed for the subsequent identification of common and divergent themes reflective of factors recognized as influencing the practice of the nurse participants. The findings indicate that the rhetoric offered by all levels of administration and endorsed in policy is not reflective of the reality of practice. Poor resources and educational preparation, a limited nursing skill mix and access to professional development, lack of nursing leadership and role models, cultural beliefs and geographic isolation are factors that reduced the capacity of the primary care nurses to raise awareness and, therefore, influence the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. [source]


    Theology, Rhetoric, Manduction, or Reading Scripture Together on the Path to God , By Peter M. Candler Jr

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 1 2008
    Mike Higton
    First page of article [source]


    Response to "Results, Rhetoric, and Randomized Trials: The Case of Donepezil"

    JOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 7 2009
    Donna Lisi
    No abstract is available for this article. [source]


    Results, Rhetoric, and Randomized Trials: The Case of Donepezil

    JOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 8 2008
    John R. Gilstad MD
    Whether donepezil provides meaningful benefit to patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is controversial, but drug sales annually total billions of dollars. A review of data from published randomized clinical trials (RCTs) found rhetorical patterns that may encourage use of this drug. To create a reproducible observation, the sentences occurring at five specific text sites in all 18 RCTs of donepezil for AD were tabulated, as were study design, sources of financial support, and outcomes that could be compared between trials. Rhetoric in the 13 vendor-supported trials (15 publications) was strongly positive. Three early trials used the motif "efficacious (or effective) , treating , symptoms" four times. "Well-tolerated and efficacious" or an equivalent motif appeared 11 times in five RCTs. Nine RCTs referred 15 times to previously proven effectiveness. Seven trials encourage off-label use, for "early" cognitive impairment, severe dementia in advance of the Food and Drug Administration labeling change, or behavioral symptoms. These rhetorical motifs and themes appeared only in the vendor-supported trials. Trials without vendor support described the drug's effects as "small" or absent; two emphasized the need for better treatments. RCT results were highly consistent in all trials; the small differences do not explain differences in rhetoric. At these text sites in the primary research literature on donepezil for AD, uniformly positive rhetoric is present in all vendor-supported RCTs. Reference to the limited benefit of donepezil is confined to RCTs without vendor support. Data in the trials are highly consistent. This observation generates the hypothesis that rhetoric in vendor-supported published RCTs may promote vendors' products. [source]


    Of Rights and Rhetoric: Discourses of Degradation and Exploitation in the Context of Sex Trafficking

    JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 2 2008
    Vanessa E. Munro
    International condemnations of people trafficking (particularly of women and girls for prostitution) as a human rights violation have proliferated in recent times. The deployment of human rights in this context has been supported by those who seek to challenge narrow victim hierarchies, but these accounts fail to clearly articulate which particular aspects of the activity violate which particular rights, and how. This article examines the applicability of protections against slavery and inhuman/degrading treatment, arguing that, in the context of the diversity and complexity of contemporary people trafficking, their limitations become apparent. The final part considers the concept of exploitation as an alternative basis for grounding a human rights claim. It cautions that invoking this concept without further elaboration (particularly in relation to the relevance of harm and consent) may be counter-productive, both in terms of theoretical clarity and practical implementation. [source]


    Rhetoric, Paideia and the Old Idea of a Liberal Education

    JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 2 2007
    ALISTAIR MILLER
    This paper argues that the modern curriculum of academic subject disciplines embodies a rationalist conception of pure, universal knowledge that does little to cultivate, humanise or form the self. A liberal education in the classical humanist tradition, by contrast, develops a personal culture or paideia, an understanding of the self as a social, political and cultural being, and the practical wisdom needed to make judgements in practical, political and human affairs. The paper concludes by asking whether the old liberal curriculum, traditionally centred on the humanities and the disciplines of grammar and rhetoric, can be recovered in the modern age. [source]


    Brent Nelson: Holy Ambition: Rhetoric, Courtship, and Devotion in the Sermons of John Donne

    JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY, Issue 2 2006
    Barry Spurr
    No abstract is available for this article. [source]


    Cold Styles: On Milton's Critiques of Frigid Rhetoric in Paradise Lost

    MILTON QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2003
    Ryan J. Stark
    First page of article [source]


    Brahms and Subject/Answer Rhetoric

    MUSIC ANALYSIS, Issue 2 2001
    Peter H. Smith
    [source]


    Protestant Nations Redefined: Changing Perceptions of National Identity in the Rhetoric of the English, Dutch and Swedish Public Churches, 1685,1772 by Pasi Ihalainen

    NATIONS AND NATIONALISM, Issue 3 2007
    ANTHONY D. SMITH
    [source]


    The Good Company: Rhetoric or Reality?

    AMERICAN BUSINESS LAW JOURNAL, Issue 2 2007
    Business Ethics Redux, Corporate Social Responsibility
    First page of article [source]


    Triangular Contests and Caucus Rhetoric at the 1885 General Election*

    PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY, Issue 2 2008
    JAMES OWEN
    This article explores the role played by late-Victorian political associations during parliamentary election campaigns. The central hypothesis is that party organisation, known popularly as the ,caucus', is best understood as a rhetorical device used by politicians and the press to gain legitimacy in the new context created by an expanded and quasi-democratic electorate. The hypothesis is tested by examining the 1885 general election campaigns in Nottingham West and Sheffield Central. Both constituencies witnessed a triangular contest whereby an ,additional' candidate, standing on a radical platform, entered the campaign and pursued a distinctly ,anti-caucus' agenda that was aimed primarily at the local Liberal Party Association. The manner in which the ,caucus' issue was articulated by all sides involved throws new light on the role played by party organisation during this period. While all sides described their association in a way that both defended and asserted its legitimacy, they equally used ,anti-caucus' rhetoric to diminish the credibility of their opponent's organisation, even though they were emulating the deeds they were denouncing. Indeed, it was those within official Liberalism that indulged in the most virulent ,anti-caucus' rhetoric. Thus, it is suggested that, with regard to the attitude of radicals towards official Liberalism, this ,anti-caucus' rhetoric reflected not a real popular resistance against party organisation or ,party', but simply intense competition and imitation between rival ,caucuses'. [source]


    Poe's Style: From "A" to Zimmerman BRETT ZIMMERMAN,,Edgar Allan Poe: Rhetoric and Style

    POE STUDIES, Issue 1 2009
    Kent P. LjungquistArticle first published online: 8 DEC 200
    First page of article [source]


    The Righteous Use of Violence: Rhetoric and Mythmaking before the First Gulf War (1990,91)

    POLAR: POLITICAL AND LEGAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW, Issue 2 2004
    Andrew J. Brown
    First page of article [source]


    Legitimizing the "War on Terror": Political Myth in Official-Level Rhetoric

    POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2010
    Joanne Esch
    This paper argues that mythical discourse affects political practice by imbuing language with power, shaping what people consider to be legitimate, and driving the determination to act. Drawing on Bottici's (2007) philosophical understanding of political myth as a process of work on a common narrative that answers the human need to ground events in significance, it contributes to the study of legitimization in political discourse by examining the role of political myth in official-level U.S. war rhetoric. It explores how two ubiquitous yet largely invisible political myths, American Exceptionalism and Civilization vs. Barbarism, which have long defined America's ideal image of itself and its place in the world, have become staples in the language of the "War on Terror." Through a qualitative analysis of the content of over 50 official texts containing lexical triggers of the two myths, this paper shows that senior officials of the Bush Administration have rhetorically accessed these mythical representations of the world in ways that legitimize and normalize the practices of the "War on Terror." [source]


    Fear Appeals in Political Rhetoric about Terrorism: An Analysis of Speeches by Australian Prime Minister Howard

    POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
    Krista De Castella
    This paper explores fear-arousing content in Australian former Prime Minister John Howard's political rhetoric about terrorism. We coded 27 speeches delivered between September 2001 and November 2007 for the presence of statements promoting fear-consistent appraisals (Smith & Lazarus, 1993). Fear-arousing content was present in 24 of these speeches, but the amount of fear-arousing content varied markedly. In particular, rhetoric that raised doubts about the capacity of Australia and its allies to cope with terrorism was most strongly present in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq and at times of declining support for government policies. Textual analysis of three key speeches confirmed a marked difference between Howard's speech given immediately after the attacks on September 11, 2001, and the second and third speeches presented prior to and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. These findings indicate that Howard has not consistently employed fear-inducing rhetoric in his speeches about terrorism, but that particular speeches appear to take this form, raising the possibility that fear-arousing rhetoric may have been selectively deployed to support his political purposes at those times. [source]


    History as Political Rhetoric

    POLITICAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 3 2008
    Jim Tomlinson
    First page of article [source]


    Presidential Rhetoric and the Public Agenda: Constructing the War on Drugs , By Andrew B. Whitford and Jeff Yates

    PRESIDENTIAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2010
    Brian Anse Patrick
    No abstract is available for this article. [source]


    Moral Rhetoric of American Presidents , By Colleen J. Shogan

    PRESIDENTIAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2009
    Mark A. Gring
    No abstract is available for this article. [source]


    The Politics of Economic Leadership: The Causes and Consequences of Presidential Rhetoric , By B. Dan Wood

    PRESIDENTIAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2008
    William D. Anderson
    No abstract is available for this article. [source]