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Rhetorical Being: a Metaphysics of Freedom and Essence Nathan Wagner Georgia State University

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Rhetorical Being: a Metaphysics of Freedom and Essence Nathan Wagner Georgia State University View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Georgia State University Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Dissertations Department of English 4-30-2018 Rhetorical Being: A Metaphysics of Freedom and Essence Nathan Wagner Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss Recommended Citation Wagner, Nathan, "Rhetorical Being: A Metaphysics of Freedom and Essence." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2018. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss/191 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RHETORICAL BEING: A METAPHYSICS OF FREEDOM AND ESSENCE by NATHAN R. WAGNER Under the Direction of Lynée Lewis Gaillet, PhD and Michael Harker, PhD ABSTRACT My dissertation examines the connection between rhetoric and being. I critique subject- oriented phenomenological assumptions that have perpetuated for decades within rhetorical theory and offer an alternative metaphysical methodology. I initially focus on Lloyd Bitzer and Richard Vatz’s debate about the rhetorical situation, which shaped accepted theories of subjectivity for decades to come. I offer an alternative model of the subject that is based on Augustine’s metaphysical model of being, and I focus on this notion of rhetorical being as a means of revealing knowledge as potentially, contextually already present through readings of Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas’s work. Augustine’s paradigm of the human being as perpetually free yet dependent on contextual surroundings for meaning, whether empirical or ephemeral, affords this study a framework through which to examine the subject within the rhetorical situation. To offer an alternative to rhetorical theories of autonomy, I argue that rhetoric precedes utterance as an original metaphysics that is connected to our being. The implications of a metaphysical rhetoric provide a future paradigm for studies in digital rhetoric, religious rhetoric, cultural rhetorics, and rhetorical activism, among others. INDEX WORDS: Rhetoric, Phenomenology, Rhetorical Situation, Metaphysics, St. Augustine RHETORICAL BEING: A METAPHYSICS OF FREEDOM AND ESSENCE by NATHAN R. WAGNER A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2018 Copyright by Nathan Russell Wagner 2018 RHETORICAL BEING: A METAPHYSICS OF FREEDOM AND ESSENCE by NATHAN R. WAGNER Committee Chair: Lynée Lewis Gaillet Michael Harker Committee: Elizabeth Lopez Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University May2018 iv DEDICATION To L & R, always and forevermore. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We do not do this thing alone. Even though the following work was composed and revised over a number of months, it represents the reflection, struggle, and scholarly pursuit over the past decade of my life. My committee members were gracious enough to guide me throughout this process and encourage my desire to “dream big.” Thank you, Michael Harker, for being a part of this project, and my doctoral career, from the very beginning. Thank you for challenging me to continually refine and shape my ideas; I have become a better scholar because of it. Thank you, Lynée Gaillet, for always believing in me, for being a consistent source of knowledge and guidance, and for presenting me with so many amazing opportunities to grow as a scholar and a teacher. You have put so much time into me, and I cannot help but be inspired by that. Thank you, Elizabeth Lopez, for stirring the idea for this dissertation in our Greek Rhetoric course. Your insights have been so constructive and valuable to me over the years, in areas within and beyond the dissertation. I want to also thank the teachers and mentors from years past that have influenced this project: Terri Nicholson, Donald Wehrs, Giovanna Summerfield, and the late James Hammersmith. Thank you to my fellow doctoral candidates; we are always in this thing together, and our friendships and conversations are incredibly important to our continued success. In no particular order: Ally Wright, John Harlow Shinholser, Simona Weik, Steven Saunders, Kristen Ruccio, Doug Hall, Charles Grimm, Ben Kolenda, Christine Anlicker, and LaRue Cook. Thank you to my parents, Brenda and Russell Wagner, for your encouragement and support throughout this process. My darlings, Leigh and Riley – I thank God every day for the blessings you are to my life. Thank you for making all of what I am possible. et quid propius auribus tuis, si cor confitens et vita ex fide est? vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ V PREFACE .......................................................................................................................... 1 PROLOGUS ....................................................................................................................... 5 1 INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS RHETORICAL BEING?..................................... 8 1.1 Rhetorical Being: “Losing” Autonomy, Gaining the Self ........................... 10 1.2 Autonomous Perspectives in Rhetorical Theory .......................................... 16 1.2.1 The Rhetorical Situation .............................................................................. 17 1.2.2 Issues of Presence and Objectivity: Scott and Burke ................................. 22 1.3 Theoretical Alternatives: Transcending Autonomy and Presence ............. 31 1.3.1 Rickert and Vivian: Images of Being in Rhetorical Theory....................... 37 1.4 Chapter Outline .............................................................................................. 44 2 WISDOM AS THE OBSCURE OBJECT OF RHETORIC ............................... 47 2.1 Classical Intersections of Rhetoric and Being: Plato and Aristotle ........... 49 2.1.1 Plato’s Transcendent ουσία: Becoming Beyond the World .............. 50 2.1.2 Plato’s Rhetorical Realizations: Activity as Knowledge ............................. 52 2.1.3 Aristotle and the Practice of Rhetoric: Towards the Good......................... 57 2.1.4 Aristotle’s Metaphysics: Locating Essence in ενέργεια ............. 61 2.2 Augustinian Ways of Be-ing ........................................................................... 66 2.2.1 Augustine’s Rhetorical Dilemma: professio or veritas? ............................. 68 vii 2.2.2 “What then, am I, my God?” ....................................................................... 74 2.2.3 Augustinian Consensus ............................................................................... 79 3 THE RHETORIC OF BEING AMONG BEINGS .............................................. 81 3.1 Augustine’s Being in the World: The Emergence of animus ...................... 84 3.1.1 Locating animus in the Confessiones, Book 10 .......................................... 90 3.1.2 Augustinian animus in the World ............................................................... 97 3.2 Intermedium: The Heideggerian World of Transcending Presence ......... 103 3.3 Augustine’s Being-In-The-World: Phenomenological Revelations .......... 112 4 THE SIMULTANEITY OF THE AESTHETIC AND THE REAL ................ 116 4.1 Freedom in Contemporary Rhetorical Theory: Linearity and Discourse121 4.1.1 Metaphysics and Language ....................................................................... 124 4.2 Metaphysical Freedom: Defining the Substance of energeia .................... 128 4.2.1 Heideggerian Freedom: Care and Being .................................................. 130 4.3 Augustine and Freedom: The Original Condition of Being ...................... 133 4.4 Confronting Being: Levinas and Proximity ............................................... 138 4.5 The Proximal Vision of Creation: Augustine’s Ethical Relationship of Being ......................................................................................................................... 143 5 THE MANIFESTATION OF METAPHORICAL CONTINGENCY ............ 152 5.1 signa and cognitio in De Trinitate: The Case of Audience in Book 8 ........ 156 5.1.1 Augustine’s Trinitarian Ontology: The Eternal Image............................ 161 viii 5.2 Beyond the Self: Levinas, the Trace, and the Signification of Being ....... 169 5.3 Augustine’s Trinitarian Ontology: The Temporal Image ......................... 175 5.3.1 The Augustinian animus: Eternity and Temporality Unified .................. 180 5.4 conclusio: The Implications of Rhetorical Being ....................................... 182 WORKS CITED............................................................................................................ 189 1 PREFACE I came to this project after reading Augustine’s Confessiones in the Fall of 2015. I hope that I don’t sound hyperbolic when I say that this was one of the most important reading experiences of my life. I read his Confessiones because I had recently developed an interest in Christian rhetorics after researching the religious connotations of the rhetorical term kairos for a graduate class project. I began to unravel a history of religious
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