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Introd,uction: Richard,McKeon nnd,the Renaissnnce of

hetoric is ) enjoying renewed popularity in Western . 1{, Users of the term rhetoric frequently define its and - \urpose, and the variety of definitions points up the essen. tial dynamism that has marked its complex . To the com- position teacher, rhetoric is an "art" of writing which focusesthe student's attention on the strategic nature of . To the literary scholar, it is a critical "apparatus" that covers all the techniques by which a writer establishesrapport with the reader. To the philosopherof language,it is a "study" of misunderstanding and its remedies.To the self-describedrhetorician, it is a "method" of argumentation which looks to an audienceto discoverthe means of persuasion. The dynamic nature of rhetoric fascinated Richard McKeon. Dur- ing his long career at the of he investigated the intricate relationship between rhetoric and the extraordinary nuni- ber of arts and sciencesit has penetrated.The essaysin this volume result from that lifelong pursuit of rhetoric's fundamental qualities. Moreover, these essaysconstitute the critical core of McKeon's in- tellectual activities and frame his considerationof topics and prob- lems that at first sight seem far removed from any concern with rhetoric as it is commonly understood.For McKeon's of rhetoric goesbeyond the verbal art of persuasionwith which the yiii I Introduction: McKeon nnd the Rennissanceof Rhetoric Introd.uction:McKeon and the Renn'issanceof Rhetoric I ix word is commonly associated. In these essaysMcKeon exposes a perience with international problems figured into his conception of vibrant, vivifying rhetoric anchoredin circumstancesof application rhetoric as a uniffing, inventive method. These concerns inspired and understandableonly in the context of ideas,assumptions, meth- numerous conferencesand seminarsdevoted to exploring the pos ods, and ends that condition its various usesthroughout history. sibilities of world unity in an ageof glaring political and ideologica Given the prodigious range of McKeon's intellectual curiosity, his differences. Finally, his perception of the effects of on longtime and pervasive interest in rhetoric suggeststhe unique place the grounding of knowledge have found expression in debates about he assignsit in the schemeof humanistic arts. To limit rhetoric to the deleterious influence of rapid change on institutions of govern- an art of expressionor to account for its continual rebirth in West ment, commerce, and education. ern history by tracing the repeatedappearances ofits characteristi 's division of into two broad categorie terms and concepts serveslittle purpose in his eyes. Rhetoric is not provides a framework for understandingMcKeon's overall project. simply a verbal art; it is also a formative principle that both directs The first category, mainstream "systematic" philosophy, has been the systematic contemplation of any subject matter and contains the preoccupation of most scholars and forms the subject matter of the analytic tools necessaryfor the comprehension of diverse and philosophy as a school subject. Centered in epistemology, it -typi often contradictory philosophic principles and systems.McKeon re cally seeksone area, one set of practices that can serve as the par- jects the notion that rhetoric and philosophy are separate disci adigm of activity. "ln the mainstream of Wester plines, each dedicated to different and even contradictory ends philosophical tradition, this paradigm has been knowint-possess- Throughout history rhetoric has infused and ordered philosophy, ing justified true beliefs, or, better yet, beliefs so intrinsically per- and, more important, philosophy has often been an unknowing form suasive as to make justification unnecessary."tAgainst this Rorty of rhetoric. By bringing together McKeon's seminal texts on rhetoric sets the second type of philosophic activity, peripheral "edifying" and philosophy, this volume seeksto broaden the reader'sappreci philosophy, which is basedin a suspicion about the pretensionsof ation of rhetoric as a central, critical method for the analysis of epistemology. ideas. On the periphery of the history of modern philosophy, one finds McKeon produced few books, preferring instead the essay as the figures who, without forming a "tradition," resemble each vehicle for his ideas. Among the approximately 140essays he wrote other in their distrust of the notion that man's essenceis to be between 1927 and.1985, one finds such a,mixture of interests and a knower of essences.Goethe, Kierkegaard, Santayana, William directions that it is easy to seewhy commentators have had diffi- James,Dewey, the later Wittgenstein, and the later Heidegger, culty assimilating his work. Nevertheless,McKeon has profoundly are figuresof this sort. . . . They have kept alive the historicist influenced the method and content of our thinking about philoso sensethat this century's "superstition" was the last century's phy, rhetoric, education, culture, and the history of ideas. His long triumph of reason,as well as the relativist sensethat the latest involvement with educators, philosophers, and academics from nu- vocabulary, borrowed from the latest scientific achievement, merous countries and his leadership in international education cir- may not express privileged representations of essences,but be cles exposeda Iarge number of influential thinkers to his analyse just another of the potential infinity of vocabularies in which and criticisms. Successivegenerations of his studentshave gone into the world can be described.2 the world as teachers,philosophers, and theorists, and their labor Richard McKeon clearly belongs among these edifiers. In his suggestthe utility and scope of the rhetoric developed in these es says. McKeon's concern with the problems of communication in a l. Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (Princeton: Princeton Uni- culturally heterogeneous world contributed to the formation of versity Press,1980), p. 566. UNESCOin the early years of the United Nations. In turn, his ex- 2. Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, p. 367. x I Introd.action:McKeon and the Renaissanceof Rhetoric Introduction: McKeon nnd tbe Renaissnnceof Rhetoric I xi

hands rhetoric is turned to an analytic purpose that sets the con- Inadequacieswere further revealed,McKeon tells us, when he em- tradictions and conflicts of philosophers and rhetoricians into a barked on an inquiry into the problem of the "one and the many" manageable scheme for comparison and evaluation. McKeon ex- at under the direction ofJohn Dewey and Fred- thesesand, in Rorty's terms, is plores themesnot more interestedin erick J. E. Woodbridge. These studies produced in him a clearer "continuing a conversationrather than discoveringa truth."3 senseof philosophy as a penetration of the problemsof human val- The purposewhich I set myself, however, was not to present ues. and develop a "thesis"-the thesis of or of any other In the teachingsof Woodbridgeand Dewey the problem of the o philosopheror even a thesisof my own-but to follow the evo- one and the many is restatedin terms appropriate to the prob- lution of "themes" in which theses influence and transform lems of our times-not as a problem of essenceand existence each other. The advantage of considering the themes within nor as a problem of reality and appearance,but as a problem which terms] acquire a variety of meaningsis that [philosophic of truth and modesof formulation. The richnessand diversitv interpretation is not limited to one aspect of discourse, and required by the and the problems of our times . . . alternative usesof "argument" which do not flt one's thesis are revealed the tenuousnessand poverty of the philosophic prin- not marked off automatically as erroneousor defective.a ciples with which I had been engaged.T According to McKeon, philosophic thinking is manifested in four The increasingly important role rhetoric came to play in Mc- ways: as personalstatement, as social integration, as scientific for- Keon's philosophic investigations marks his private passagefrom a mulation, and as insight into fundamental values. rational philosophy founded in universalizing vocabularies and de- I had evolved a complete philosophy in the first sense,as per- rived from flxed principles of being to a rhetorical philosophy based sonal expression,at the age of twenty. Indeed, I have never in the circumstancesof expressionand conditioned by specificprob- since been able to construct a schemeof solutions of problems, lems of action. His belief that the arbitrary separation of rhetoric old and new, so nearly complete, certain, or systematic. . . . It from philosophy colors how we come to terms with change and could be applied to any field of philosophy or to any subject transformation in the history of Western thought constitutes Mc- matter the without needof much effort to becomefamiliar with Keon's most important contribution to contemporary philosophic intricacies of the subject matter or its problems.s analysis. The divorce of rhetoric from philosophy, of expression This complicated, ornate epistemologr was badly damaged, how- from content, preventsthe intellectual synthesisessential to resolv- ever, by contact with philosophy ing the persistent problems of being, thinking, and acting. If we enforce this split, rhetoric and philosophy bear little importance ro . . . in its second in sense, which it servesas an instrument to daily life. For McKeon, however, "philosophical issues are not treat problemsin the specificforms which they assumein times, merely intellectual puzzles . . . a philosophy is called upon to il- places, and circumstances,and . . . in its third sense,in which luminate human problems of freedom and its absence,of life and lphilosophy] makes use of the methods and the accomplish- death."8 Rorty's edifying philosophy is for ments of scienceto adapt itself as a form of knowledge to its McKeon rhetoric in its highest form. problems.6 Although these essaysshare certain concernsand considerations, 3. Rorty, Philosophyand the Mirror of Nature, p.375. they differ in the subject matrer they treat, the principles they de- 4. "Discourse, Demonstration, Verification, and Justification," D€monstration, Vdrification, (Louvain: Nauwelaerts, 1969),p. 67. Justification 7. "A PhilosopherMeditates on Discovery,,'p. 201. 5. "A PhilosopherMeditates on Discovery," p. 199. 8. charles Hartshorne, in Americanphilosophy (Albany: SUNy press, 6. "A PhilosopherMeditates on Discovery," p. 199. 1984),p. 20e. xii I Introduction: McKeon and the Renaissanceof Rhetoric Introduction: McKeon ond the Renaissonceof Rhetoric I xiii scribe, the sourcesthey draw upon, and the intentions they fulfill. ject matter but can only be understood in the context of specific No single essay contains the overarching statement of McKeon's uses and ends. This conception liberates the historical analysis of philosophy ofrhetoric. Rather, each sketchesa particular reification rhetoric from classically determined functions and forms. According of rhetoric by examining the philosophic conditions and pragmatic to McKeon, a modern history ought to make meaningful the often applications that unite to produceconcrete expressions of rhetorical contradictory purposesassigned to rhetoric in the arbitrary scheme "such theory and practice. This approach produces a history of rhetoric of the and arts. Properly developed, a history . . . that emphasizesrhetoric's volatility throughout Western history. might give significanceand lively interest to the altering definitions, One theme that McKeon exploresis that the many renaissance the differentiation ofvarious conceptionsof rhetoric itself, and the of rhetoric have shapedand been shapedby new ideas and percep spreadof devicesof rhetoric to subject matters far from those ordi- tions of nature, life, art, freedom, truth, history, knowledge, and narily ascribedto it."e . McKeon's history of rhetoric complements but vastly differs The traditional of a verbal rhetoric attempt to fix the from the standard history. This traditional, overt history, the "pe- past through microscopic inspection of rhetoric's role in the for- dantic explorations of . . . an art of persuasionand belief," preoc- mation and spread of ancient . Rhetoric, an archaic phe- cupiesscholars who treat modern rhetoric as the heir of traditional nomenon, becomes clearer the nearer we approach its origins. terminologies, functions, and forms. Since it fails to acknowledge McKeon's history is telescopic,projecting a role for rhetoric based the differing matters and often contradictory ends marking rheto- on an understanding of the transformations and applications evi- ric's earlier uses,it takes little note of "the consequencesof basic dent in past uses. The investigation of rhetoric along these lines philosophic differences"that determine the place of rhetoric in the reveals that we have not "moved away from the rhetorical world larger schemeof human knowledge.Shifts in the application of rhe- of classical antiquity"to but that the modern world is a product of torical conceptsare usually regardedas arbitrary becauseunderly- rhetoric's pervasiveand enduring influence. ing assumptions about the nature and function of rhetoric are lost McKeon's perception of rhetoric can be most vividly traced in the in the analysesof similar terms. Invention, disposifion, and style, Middle Ages, when applications of rhetorical terms and concepts for example, are examined as if they have fixed, unalterable mea4- moved far afield of their classicalsubject matter. This no doubt will iggs, while the new meaning given the original conception in the seem odd to the reader imbued with the traditional conception of context of its novel application generally passesunnoticed. Modern rhetoric. How can an essentially argumentative art find room to rhetoric is treated as derivative rather than as original or inventive grow during a period when universal truth conditions all aspectsof and is assessedand applied according to its theoretic affinity to life? Most modern historians beg the question by simply tracing the ancient models. And though our rhetoricians often employ the influencesof the ancient rhetoricians and poets on medieval arts of same key terms in their definitions of a verbal art of rhetoric, they letter writing, preaching, and poetry. 'sfive divisions of rhet- often do so to different ends. The ambiguity surrounding the oric-invention, disposition, style, memory, and delivery-serve as vocabulary of rhetoric translates into confusing descriptionsof its focal points for the criticism of peculiar literary forms. The history past, since "communication," "discourse," "intention," "audi- of medieval rhetoric is marked, according to this approach, by a ence," "argumentation," "persuasion," and "invention" also serv r-withering away of the exalted position the art enjoyed in Greece as the linguistic signposts for tracing rhetoric's historical develop- and Rome. ment. McKeon attempts to recover a history that reduces"the welter of McKeon's history of rhetoric, in stark contrast to this traditional 9. "Rhetoric in the Middle Ages," p. 124. history, does not have as its subject an art confined by fixed form, 10. Walter J. Ong, Rhecoric, Romance,and Technology: Studiesin the Interaction content, or terminology. Rhetoric is an art that lacks a unique sub- ofExpression and Culture (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,I97l), p. vii. xiv I Introduction: MtKeon and.the Renaissnnceof Rhetoric Introd.uction:McKeon ond the Renaissonceof Rhetoric I xo changesin rhetoric to a significant historical sequence."His anal- the Middle Ages. But rhetoric proceeds along another less obvious ysis of rhetoric in the Middle Ages elaborately investigatesthe re- line of developmentin the tradition of philosophersand theologians flexive relationship between rhetoric, poetry, philosophy, and the "who found in Augustine a Platonism . . . formulated in terms re- other arts. McKeon's analysisopposes traditional historiesby seein furbished and simplified from Cicero's rhetorical distinctions." rhetoric as a dynamic method rather than a static art. All rhetorical Moreover, Cicero supplied a treatment of definitions and principles theories, classical, medieval, or modern, are of interest for the light which informed a third line of development,the tradition of logic. they shed on philosophic disputes and for the transformations they Medieval thinkers in all the arts and sciencesturned to rhetoric for work in concrete application. When rhetoric acquires a theoretical methods, distinctions, and conceptions-not simply the ancient basis, questions of philosophic significance penetrate and inform subject matters or vocabularies-to vivify their work. arts of expression.When philosophy acquiresa pragmatic intention, questions of rhetorical significance modulate and guide systems of During the Middle Ages and the Renaissancemany of the op- judgment. By demonstrating that rhetoric can be fruitfully exam- positions and agreementsof theology and , no lessthan the problems internal to ined as the complex interplay of theory and practice, McKeon chal- each, were stated in language bor- rowed from or influenced by rhetoric and reflected theories lenges the notion that the history of rhetoric has as its goal the by which rhetoricians had in intiquity opposed philosophers and development of a unitary body of knowledge "by more or less ade- logicians; surprising parallels were disclosedin theolory and quate investigationsof a constant subject matter." dialectic as well as in other arts and sciences . . . expressedin Common opinion holds that in the Middle Ages rhetoric all but languagefamiliar to the rhetorician.t3 died as a vital art. Medieval scholarsvary in their adherenceto this judgment, but most subscribein somedegree to the complaint that Rhetoric was "the sourceof doctrines which have since become the works that have come down to us are nothing more than a the property of other sciences . . . and of particular devices which "misapplication and perversion. . . of terms traditional in ancient have been applied to a variety of subject matters." The practical rhetoric."n Modern commentators seem to lament that there was usesof rhetoric, in the Middle Agesand the present,have identified "no medieval rhetorician who really advanced the study."r2 Con- it with and opposedit to logic and dialectic, sophistic and science, sequently, they erect a tradition of rhetoric in the Middle Ages civil philosophy and law, psychologyand literature, and philosophy around disparate works on poetic and prosaic composition, preach- itself. McKeon believes that to confine rhetoric to a single subject ing, and letter writing to promote the view that, busy as they were, matter denies it a vital history, in the Middle Ages or at any time: medieval scholars never fully appreciated the ancient art with ". . . the innovations that are recorded during that period in the which they fiddled. One must await the Renaissancefor the re- arts with which lrhetoric] is associatedsuggest that their histories sumption of substantial work in rhetorical theory. might profitably be consideredwithout unique attachment to the For McKeon, though, these analyses produce only "a brief and field in which their advancesare celebrated."r{ equivocal history of rhetoric in the Middle Ages." His purposeis to This principle directs McKeon's examination of poetry and phi- 1''move the consideration of rhetoric beyond the well-worked ground losophy in the Late Middle Ages, when philosophers often held of tracing Cicero's influence on medieval arts of composition and conflicting opinions about the nature and purpose of poetic com- performance. To be sure, Cicero "fixed the influence and oriented position. some felt that poetry "approximates closely the subjects the interpretation of ancient thought, Greekas well asLatin" during and problems of philosophy," that the poet expressesthe highest

Il. C. S. Baldwin, Medieval Rhetoricand Poetic to 1400(New york: Macmillan, 1928),p. rs2, pp. I9l-193. 15. "Rhetoric in the Middle Ages," p. 125. 12. Baldwin, Medieval Rhetoric and Poetic, p. 62. 14. "Rhetoric in the Middle Ages," p. 166. xpi I Introdu*ion: McKeon and. the Rennissonceof Rhetoric Introdact'ian: McKeon ond. the Rennissanceof Rhetoric I xvii ideas about man, his actions, and nature.rsOthers claimed that the lectic and rhetoric. Abelard was condemned to silence for his in- constructions of poets are the chief sourcesof error and immorality, novation, but his method was picked up by numerous imitators and that philosophy alone explicates the truth. Still others held that controlled the curriculum of the schools in one form or another for poetry is completely lacking in doctrine and that philosophy re- three centuries. quires a precision of proof uncharacteristic of Poetic forms. In the Rhetoric also guided the historical, allegorical, tropological, and face of thesemedieval disagreements,it is misleading to reduce the anagogicalmodes of scriptural interpretation. Augustine'sOn Cfiris- distinction between poetry and philosophy to differences in modes tian Doctrine introduced a rhetoric aptly suited to isolating and of expression, rigor in treatment, or usefulness. "Despite the temP' transmitting universal Christian truth through an unfolding, vari- tation to claim the scientific method for ," Poetry able human history. His distinction between divine and human and philosophy cannot be classifiedas "purely natural phenomena things and signs provided the matrix upon which medieval com- or things," since they are artificial constructions that expressideas mentators worked out their inquiries into , the nature of sin about art and life. Philosophy is often cloaked in poetic form, and and redemption, the purposeand structure of sermons,the character both medieval poets and philosophers worked on themes and prob- of preachers, and the analysis of audiences.Clearly, rhetoric en- Iems drawn from the conflict between reason and faith. Poetry and joyed a lively and fecund history during the Middle Ages. philosophy share similar subject matters and purposes in the Late McKeon examines rhetoric's pervasive role in medieval arts and Middle Ages, and the common method binding them together "is sciencesto reinforce the notion that our knowledge and use of rhet- rhetoric, which assumesmany forms and uses in the twelfth cen- oric must be distilled from its obscured history. He plays upon the tury." Becauserhetoric provided the link between doctrine and aes- ambiguities that have come to surround rhetoric's traditional no- thetic, the determination of its history along lines laid down by menclature in order to demonstrate that the history of rhetoric is McKeon reveals the important connection between thought and at heart the story of new applications in changed circumstances for expression. In this, medieval and modern times share a common bonowed words, concepts, and distinctions. The exercise is dizry- disposition: ". . . for poetry is related to philosophy today in meth- ing, especially if McKeon is read in terms of the traditional history .ods and matters as different as existentialism, Marxism, and prag- of rhetoric, where ancient definitions form the standard of compar- matism, and it has returned to themes . . . which recall that man ison. He investigatesthe sharedheritage of rhetoric and philosophy, is in a grave predicament, that words are ambiguous . . . and God for example, by examining varying notions of a variety of rhetorical is mysterious."16 terms and concepts,especially commonplace.', Rhetoric informed methods for resolving conflicting assertions in The idea of the commonplaceoriginated with Aristotle, who was canon law, theology, and philosophy. This facet of its medieval the first to distinguish between the general nature of rhetoric and development is seen in the shift of rhetorical terms and concepts dialectic and the special nature of science,or philosophy. from questions of law to questions of faith. In the twelfth century Aristotle had differentiated rhetoric sharply from philosophy, rhetoric was directed to problems of sacred theolory by Peter Abe- and rhetorical persuasion from demonstrative proof, by means lard, whose Sic et Non adapted the traditional forms of canonic of the questions and the places proper to each. Rhetoric is a proposed that disputation to matters of mystic ambiguity. Abelard counterpart to dialectic. Rhetorical and dialectical syllogisms +) even the apparent doctrinal contradictions in the Fathers of the are concerned with places common to many sciences and sub- Church could be resolved through the judicious application ofdia- ject matters. Proper places, on the other hand, are derived from propositions 15. "Poetry and Philosophy in the Twelfth Century: The RenaissanceofRhetoric," peculiar to each species and genus of things. . . . p. 167. To the extent that proper places are used, a science is produced 15. "Poetry and Philosophy in the Twelfth Century," p. 193. different from rhetoric and dialectic, and if first principles are tc?iii I Introduction: McKeon nnd the Renoissonceof Rhetoric Introduction: McKeon and the Renaissanceof Rhetoric I xix

encountered, the discussion has moved from rhetoric . . . to the as of effective arguments. It directs the critical evaluation of be- scienceof which they are first principles.tT havior, experimentation, and first principles. For ". . . judgment adds to the demonstrative arts of deducing from assumptions,the Subsequently,these conceptions were inverted. Rhetoric came to deliberative arts of examining consequences,and the judicial arts treat specific questions-this case,this causd, this effect-while phi' of falsiffing alternatives, while invention extends from the con- losophy and science came to treat general problems. struction of formal arguments to all modes of enlarging experience As devicesof rhetoric, commonplaceshave often servedcontra' by reason as manifested in awareness,emotion, interest, and ap- dictory purposes. At times, they have referred to the seat of argu- "le ments and have been closely allied with the traditional rhetorical Preciation. The movement of traditional terms of rhetoric from arts of elo- division of memory. At other times, they have referred to heuristic quence, where they determine the shape of arguments, to arts of devicesthat suggestqualities, characteristics,and relations aPpro' analysis, where they determine the proper scopeof subjects and the priate to all arguments. More recently, they have been identified methods of inquiry, indicates the presenceof rhetoric as a dynamic with unvarying and repetitious formulae that offer an "easy substi- tool shaping modes of thought. This history has been determined to tute for the invention of a pertinent solution." Commonplace in- a extent by the ancient distinction between knowing and vention thus has alternately encomPassed common categories, Sreat doing. The problematic separation of arts of knowing from arts of distinct relations, and universal truths. Moreover, commonplaces expressionled Cicero to attempt to rejoin wisdom and eloquencein have been applied by philosophers and scientists to construct his- a "civic" philosophy controlled by the reformation of a rhetoric tories of their fields, by moralists to order fundamental values, and appropriate to Roman law. His effort has been repeated many times by politicians to define their communities. in circumstancesfar removed from classicallegal culture. Rhetoric The history of commonplacesis marked by degradations,narrow- has expanded and contracted to fit the preferencesof individual ings, transformations, and novel applications. When applied to philosopherswho have set our to construct intelligible systemsof memory, the commonplaces threatened to become as numerous as discovery and explanation. In the curriculum ofthe schools rhetoric the things remembered. Commonplaces moved from meaning an has been assigneda much reduced role when the motive has been empty place, asan aid in the orderingof things, to meaning a special to establish discrete disciplines marked by unique subject matters matter, or subject, to be discussed.As instruments of discovery, and methods. Conversely,rhetoric has organized the entire course commonplaces have shifted back and forth, from devices used for of study when the goal has been to bridge the gap berween distinct discovering something unknown to formulae used for recalling stock subject matters. "When the philosophic arts are conceived of as arts quotations to be applied in a familiar manner. As a result, "com- of being or of thought, rhetoric is not rreated as a philosophic art, monplaceswere memorizedrather than usedfor invention, and they although it is used extensively in the controversy and refutation were recited when the occasion arose rather than used when the which constitutes communication among . When the circumstances required. " 18 philosophic arts are arts of communication and construction, rhet- Invention and judgment have beenjoined at times within rhetoric oric is made into a universal and architectonic art."2o and at other times within philosophy. They have also been sepa- Inventions, discoveries,and judgments-of things, occurrences rated to form distinct arts of knowing and telling. Invention has phenomena, actions, accounts, systems,and statements-are referred to things as well as words and has moved into all sciences ex- pressedin language and genresof discourse. We determine our com- and arts. Judgment is of characteristic qualities and virtues as well

17. "The Methods of Rhetoric and Philosophy: Invention and Judgment," p. 60. 19. "The Methodsof Rhetoric and Philosophy,"p. 59. 18. "Creativity and the Commonplace," p. 28. 20. "Philosophy of Communicationsand the Arts," p. I08. tctcI Intrndrrctiln: McKeon and tbe Renaissonceof Rhetoric Introdaction: McKeon and the Renaissanceof Rhetoric I xxi monplaces, whatever our purpose, through fictive narration, to new ways of knowing, telling, doing, and being. Consequently, objective description, articulated argument, and sensible exposi- our commonplacesneed to be innovative rather than repetitious tion. In these essaysMcKeon points the way to explorations of the becausediscovery "is not the simple fitting, or passiveaddition, of connection of languageto subject, not only in philosophy but also further items of information to a collection of data or to a structure in politics, religion, art, and science.The history of Westernthought of theory." Discovery leads to the creation of new forms, expres turns on the successiverediscovery and novel application of com- sions, and ways of thinking rather than to doctrines grounded in monplaces freed from the mindless repetition of things past, and the past. rhetoric emergesas the crucial force in intellectual change. "The McKeon believes that the expansion of rhetoric from an art of relevance of the methods of rhetoric to the problemsof philosophy expressionto a principle of organization makes possiblethe appre- is due in part to the continuity of the influences, in which the ciation of diverse cultures, systems,and disciplines, since rhetoric methods of philosophy have influenced the methods of rhetoric and seekscommonplaces that transcend the narrow confines of special been influenced in turn by them, and in part to the orientation of .The power of rhetoric residesin its ability to discover, contemporary problemsto issuesparticularly suited to the methods in the materials at hand, languageand modesof interyretation suit- of rhetoric."2r able to immediate circumstances."The new art of rhetoric is the Clearly, rhetoric can be more than a verbal art, although expres- art of discovery.It is not a heuristic method or radical interpretation sion has always been an important element. Most modern rhetori- but an art of topics or a selectionof elementswhich opensthe way cians believe that words determine actions, that language is to the recognition of new and to the perception of unnoticed effective and affected. Rhetoric, for them, is essentially argumen- structures or sequences."22 tative in structure and intent. As such, it has been widened to ex- McKeon calls this rhetoric an architectonic productive art, a de- plain not only speechmaking and persuasivewriting but also the scription he draws from Aristotle who "gave a technical meaning argumentative aspectsof film, fiction, and the entire range of artis. to the ordinary Greekexpression architecton-'architectonic artist' tic expression. or'master craftsman'-and usedit in his schemaof the organization McKeon pursues another line of investigation. Invention refers of the sciences."23McKeon's use of the term sharessome features not only to words but to facts, data, methods, and systems.Rhetoric with modern usage,where "architectonic" carries a special mean- is more than an expressiveart; it is an organizational principle that ing of structural design or skill in architecture. McKeon's senseof provides the framework within which we can reveal and arrange the word, however, is a residueof the more ancient definition. The the significant parts of any human undertaking. Ideasare expresse rhetorician and the architect exist at two levels. As technicians, in structuresdeveloped to guide action-political communities, ed- they are skilled with the tools of expressionspecial to their trade- ucational systems,business enterprises-as well as in the artifacts lines and planesfor the architect, words and argumentsfor the rhe- of literary or artistic creativity. Languageis still an effective tool, torician. As master craftsmen, though, rhetorician and architect but it follows from the creation of new ways of conceiving and transcend their specialtiesto take on greater responsibilities.They acting upon change. That is, it trails the invention of new devices envision the formal design,coordinate the work of specialists,asses of scienceand new forms of cooperative action. The technological and assignthe raw materials, and produce by their efforts the final world literally "comes to terms" with the new after it has been product. An architecton-rhetorician or architect-employs an art uncovered by the application of scientific methods of discovery. different from that of the user, who knows only the form and func- Technological specialtiesshape our language, and thereby give rise 22. "Philosophyof Communicationsand the Arts," p. ll0. 25. "The Usesof Rhetoric in a Technological Age: Architectonic Productive Arts, " 21. "The Methods ofRhetoric and Philosophyi'p.64. p. 2. xxii I Introd.action:McKeon ond the Rennissnnceof Rhetoric Introduction: McKeon ond.the Rensissanceof Rhetoric I xxiii itself tion, because the master craftsman also knows the matter and stance is a rhetorical concept that has enlivened philosophy, makes the product. In Aristotelian terms, he commands the four law, and science.Innovation, in any discipline, arisesby means of causes:the formal, efficient, material, and final. rhetoric, when old terms and ideas are transformed by new problems Rhetoric has always possessedan architectonic function, and it and uses.Invention, first linked to the creation of arguments,now has grown or contracted according to the influence the art has as- stands for creativity in every realm of human thought and action. sumed in relation to other methods and sciences.When rhetoric is Rhetoric is productive becauseit leads to actions, systems,and a verbal art of persuasion, it is architectonic of attitudes and pro- structures. In Aristotle the productive sciences,like , have ductive of arguments and words. Cicero divided the art of rhetoric particular content and result in things made or produced-plays, into five parts and made disposition a major comPonent. Once the poems, artworks, and the like. Architectonic arts, in contrast, lack key points have been discovered in the case at hand, they must be special products and focus on the means of production. Since Aris- "the ordered to lead an audience to the desired conclusion. Ordering totle, however, scienceshave become . . . sourcesof produc- involves more than arguments, of course, since it also refers to the tion, of new matters and new forms, in need of organizing methods words and examples within the context of syllogistic structures. In and principles." The Aristotelian differentiation of the practical, terms of an audience the disposition of arguments produces the in- productive, and theoretical arts and sciencesbreaks down in the clination to believe or disbelieve, accePt or reject. When rhetoric technological age becausetechnical innovation forces changesin moves beyond the realm of a verbal art, the concePtsof disposition areas remote from the sciencesthat first gave rise to new tools and and ordering assumea more universal nature. They drop the specific devices. Invention in the technological age carries with it conse- subjects of argumentative communication and pick up the charac- quences in practice and product as well as in theory. teristic contents of whatever art or science they join. Cicero pro- The explosion of new techniqueshas wreaked havoc upon static vides a ready example of this sense of disposition, for his "use of institutions of government, commerce, and learning becausemod- rhetoric as a productive architectonic art laid down the structure ern forms of special knowledge cannot be guided by the principles of a program of education and culture designedto reunite eloquence of any one science.Technology reinforcesthe disruptive separation and wisdom in action." of words and things by creating special places for action. Disagree- Moreover, rhetoric is architectonic because,like Aristotle's Poli' ments between expertshave a way of becomingpolitical and social tici, it has its end in action, not knowledge.'Sincethe "architectonic controversies to be resolved by generalists. The age of technology arts treat ends which order the ends of subordinate arts," rhetoric militates against the orderly institutions of Plato's Republic and we structures thinking about any subject matter. In this it is distin- cannot rely on a selectgroup of guardiansto make our decisionsfor guished from all the other arts and sciences,including politics. "For us. McKeon's conception of rhetoric as an architectonic productive Aristotle rhetoric is not a'science,'becauseeach sciencehas a par- art provides an intellectual principle to organize considerationsof ticular'method' suited to its particular subject-matterand operative change and its attendant dissonancein the modern world. Verbal according to its proper principles."2a McKeon develops this point in rhetoric producesonly words and arguments reinforcing differences. the brief histories that open most of these essays.Rhetoric lacks any McKeon's rhetoric collapsesthe distinction between words and specialsubject matter, although its transmissionin Westernculture things and seeksto remedy the division between wisdom and elo- has always been through its association with other arts and sci nce by inverting the traditional relationships of verbal rhetoric. ences. Rhetorical terms and concepts have influenced and bee Actions, situations, and organizations lead to the creation of new influenced by many disciplines and circumstances. Indeed, circum' ogies. Words do not determine actions; they bridge the gap between experience and the novel. Or, to put the matter another 24. "The Usesof Rhetoric in a Technological Age," p. 4. way, "The commonplace of commonplacesis the place in which xxip I Introdaction: McKeon s'nd the Renaissonceof Rhetoric Introd.act'ion:McKeon ond the Renaissnnceof Rhetoric I xxt the certainties of the familiar are brought into contact with the levels. In America, where culture is expressedin productive activity transformations of innovation."2s McKeon's is a rhetoric of.inven- dominated by technological innovation, the new rhetoric grows out tion rather than expression,and fimiliar commonplacesare trans' of and subsumesthe traditional verbal art. Three realmsof practical formed into instruments for perception, creation, arrangement, actionLeducation, business, and politics-exhibit most clearly discursiveexploration, and inclusion. how rhetoric's twofold nature operates. In education, the verbal art of rhetoric is the specialdiscipline of It is appropriate that commonplaces be transformed from col' and, as persistent lections of fixed and established,communicable clich6s to neu- the such, exacerbatesthe division tral sources of new percePtions oPerative in new directions. between words and things. Verbal rhetoric is an instrument of ar- Rhetoric again has assumeda dominant place in our thought ticulation and analysis which focuseson the products of human and action. Whereas the rhetoric of the Romans took its com- expression.It is used to teach writing, speaking,and literary criti- monplaces from the practical arts and jurisprudence and the cism. In business,verbal rhetoric has found a place in corporate rhetoric of the Humanists took its commonplaces from the fine and advertising. The techniques of persuasion arts and literature, our rhetoric finds its commonplaces in the culled from the long history of argumentative theory, are used to and of calculating ma- technology of commercial advertising define audiences and sell the products of other arts and sciences. chines.26 Verbal rhetoric is an instrument of differentiation and accommo- The exigencies of a technological age force us to deal with prob- dation which seeksto match commercial appeals with special au- lems of communication that transcend and subsume the require- diences. In politics, verbal rhetoric has found a place in legal ments of mere persuasion. Rhetoric is productive of actions as well reasoning, legislative debate, lobbying, and propaganda. It is an as words, and it connects disparate things-cultures, disciplines, instrument of communication and negotiation which determines sciences, languages, ideologies-by extrapolating commonality the realm of the possible in the allocation of limited resources from the uncommon. The conception of rhetoric as an instrument among competing interests. The modes of commonplace invention of cohesion breaks free of earlier formulations of rhetoric as a seP' focus on immediate judgments and decisions in order to convince arate art: form is related to matter, Presentationto content, agent dubious audiences of the similarity between present problems and to audience, and intention to reason through the inquiry into what past circumstances. is the case,rather than to semantic analysisof what somebodyelse In each instance rhetoric is used to produce appropriate words has said. and arguments.By searchingfor historical terms that can be made Rhetoric emergesin the technological agein two distinct, related to fit existing conditions, rhetoric communicates establishedjudg- forms. As a verbal art of persuasion,it shrinks to a collection of ments or interprets what someone has said in light of what is commonplace techniques of argumentative communication. Writ' known. It passively receives its content from precedent circum- ing, and communication in general, is seen as an action in itself. stancesand uses.Most important, rhetoric proceedshere as a verbal As an inventive, organizing principle, rhetoric Srows to meet the principle, qmploying traditional languageand conceptsto configure demand for unity amid technological fragmentation. Communica- new problems. tion in any form is a residue of action. The twofold history of rhet- Architectonic rhetoric, however, r. oric showsthat at every stagein its developmentin Westernculture, rhetoric operatessimultaneously at the verbal and the architectonic . . . should become a universal art, an art of producing things n5) and arts, and not merely one of producing words and argu- 25. "Creativity and the Commonplace," p. 35. ments. . . . In an age of technology the diremption to be re- 26. "Creativity and the Commonplace,"p.34. moved is the separation of theory and practice by the '\,, xxti I Introd.action: McKeon and the Renaissnnceof Rhetoric Introduction: McKeon ond. the Renaissanceof Rhetoric I xxpii

constitution of a technology which is theory applied, the into academic departments where a premium has been placed on of . We seek to produce it in concrete experience and "knowing well" at the expenseof "telling well. " Architectonic rhet- existenceby rejoining reasonand sense,cognition and emotion, oric rejoins knowledge and expression by incorporating the orga- universal law and concrete occurrence.2T. nizational aspects of rhetoric into the design and execution of all In education, architectonic rhetoric organizesthe entire curric- coursesofstudy. It producesa pluralism ofdisciplines by establish ulum of study as well as courses in writing, reading, and speech ing modes of discovery and discourse common to all sciences and Rhetoric has always been associated with systematic education. arts. : Cicero's insistence that an orator be schooled in philosophy was In business,architectonic rhetoric organizeswork among tech. intended to guarantee that the power to move men to act would nologies isolated by their different languages,methods, and ends derive from a knowledge of the nature and consequencesof right By moving out of the marketing and sales division, where it is em- action. The wise man who cannot speak is seldom helpful, he ployed as a verbal art, rhetoric informs the conduct of commercial warned, and the eloquent man who lacks wisdom is always dan- enterprise in all its phases. Modern businesssuffers from the frag- gerous. Augustine sought to empower the Christian preacher to dis- mentation of internal processesand external audiences becausethe cern the truth among the flawed signs and ambiguous terminologies, historic dialogue between special knowledge and common opinion analogies, parables, and examples of Holy Scripture by means of an in the technological age lacks an appropriate structure for its con- interpretive rhetoric that organized learning and life in the Chris duct. Communities of knowledge form around discrete and incom- tian world. In the RenaissancePeter Ramus laid out several disci municative special interests while control of rapid change, which plines in his scheme for a rational system of education. Although spreadsbeyond the boundaries ofits origin, is the product ofchance, he formally assignedstyle to rhetoric and placed invention under not art, in our time. The rise of "high tech" enterprise illustrates logic, the unifying framework for his division of the sciencesis base the point. Most successfulundertakings are the work of a very few on the five Ciceronian parts of rhetoric. Richard McKeon, Robert people who begin with a vision, however defined, and organize the Hutchins, , and others developed a pluralistic and instruments for its attainment according to ongoing adaptations to practical course of study at the in the 1950 changing conditions. In other words, they conduct a dialogue be- which sought to overcome the tendency of interdisciplinary studies tween what is known and what can be done. This dialogue is shape to succumb to subordination to one well-establishedor popular dis at every stage by "the calculation of uses that might be made of cipline. As McKeon explained: "I inclined to argue for a broade vastly increasedavailable means." It aims to devise new ends and conception of the liberal arts . . . one that would strive to combine to avoid errors based on previous misunderstandings. In form and universality of judgment with particularity of application of rule function the successful high technology company is an elaborate, byjoining considerationsofthe functions ofliberal arts as ideas and eloquent conversation between the present and the past, special actions to their functions as words and things."za places and commonplaces. Architectonic rhetoric reorients the student to discover previously Architectonic rhetoric provides the conceptual basis for under- unnoticed connectionsbetween establisheddisciplines. Current in- standing and managing change within fragmented technocracies terest in "writing acrossthe curriculum" is one expressionof rhet- Communities are formed and reformed according to the vagariesof oric's potential; it seeksto move responsibility for expression back changingsituations, recent discoveries,novel devices,and new con- cepts. Becausethe technological age is also the information age, the effects of novelty 27. "The UsesofRhetoric in a Technological Age," p. 13. spread rapidly throughout the organizing struc. 28. "Criticism and the Liberal Arts: The School of Chicago Criticism," Professio tures of society. Our contemplation of the new and our attempts to 82 (Modern LanguageAssociation of America, 1982), p. 4 control the processesby which it becomes real are thus locked up Innod.action: McKeon and the Renaissnnceof Rhetoric I xxix xxpiii I Introd.uction:iVIcKeon and the Renaissnnceof Rhetoric scale. Rhetoric has always been concernedwith the connec- in a paradox. Novelty explained is no different from the familiar global and change, similarity and difference, and while discovery reduced to rules is indistinguishable from other ac- tion between stability in- tions guided by precept or habit.2eFacts tend to overwhelm judg' thus pays particular attention to the impact of technological ments. Collaboration in a climate of masscommunication is made novation on the institutions of government and law. Architectonic inefficient by institutionalized misperception and misunderstand' rhetoric also looks to dissolve the traditional prejudices of past ar- ing. Rhetoric is a managing skill that creates commonplaces for guments about the means and ends of community by adjusting po- systematicaction out of the data, facts, and consequencesof actual litical structures and processesto changesin polity. Rhetoric alone cases.As an architectonic productive art, rhetoric producesa plu' among the humanistic arts can isolate and addressproblems pecu- ralism of by establishing structures, forms, and proce' liar to the circumstancesof the present.The desireto come together, dures that transcendthe unique languagesof specializedsciences. not the urge to persuade,is what makes politics rhetorical. Persua In politics, architectonic rhetoric c-f-eatescommunities of in- sion follows communication and the formation of communities formed action out of diverse cultures, polities, interests, and ideo' since it is impossibleto persuade"out of context." Isolation from logies. This is particularly crucial in an age dominated by the causesand consequencesof belief--"true believing"-admits no technology, for politics and technological innovation are often capacity for change. joined in an unholy alliance to promote the centralization of au- Further evidence for the transcendent nature of rhetoric is found ;{, thority and the obliteration of real differences-cultural, political, in On ChristianDoctrine, where Augustine usesrhetoric in both its racial, spiritual-in the name of efficient government. When polit' verbal and architectonic aspectsto distinguish his Christian con- ical forms are unable to adapt to rapid changesin techniques, the ception from Cicero'sclassical art. As a verbal rhetoric On Christian entire structure of social relationships is damaged.As one observe Doctrine sets out precepts"for treating the Scriptures . . . so that has noted, they fstudents] may profit not only from reading the work of ex- positors but also in their own explanations of the sacredwritings . . . social structures and political institutions are increasingly to others."3tThe principles and distinctions ofclassical rhetoric are eroded by the impact of technological innovation which they cannot reject, regulate, or commit themselvesto absorb. . . . transformed by Augustine to fit the particular requirements of per- The technological society is not threatened by the inescapable suasion in the setting of the universal truth of Christian doctrine. conflict of technology and politics, but rather by an avoidable As an architectonic art, however, Augustine's rhetoric moves be- conflation of technique and shallow rationality . . . Reasonin yond the technical details of felicitous interpretation and suasive the service of technique, employing only the categories and preaching. Through an evolutionary human history it encompasse conceptionsof conventional politics, is indeed inept.3o the processof coming to terms with divine wisdom in the midst of confusing transmitted temporally. On Architectonic rhetoric seeksto avoid the "conflation of technique symbols of communication ChristianDoctine by unchang- and shallow rationality" by opening up the processesof dissent and developsa rhetorical method which ing divergence.More than an art of propagandaand conviction, rhet' truth can be isolated and employed according to the needs of oric discoverscommonplaces of unity and agreementrather than of an ever changing and specificallydetermined Christian community. opposition. It directs the inquiry into causesof political action in Augustine focuses the problem of developing a truly Christian his- a manner sensitive to the influence of mass communication on a tory by dealing "explicitly with the ties that had bound educated

29. "A Philosopher Meditates on Discovery," p. I95. 50. Raghavan [yer, Paropolitics: Toward the City of Man (Oxford: Oxford Uni- 51. Saint Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, translated by D. W. Robertson,Jr. (Indianapolis: versity Press,1979), pp. 144tr Bobbs-Merrill,1958), p. 3. xxx I Introduction: McKeon nnd the Renaissanceof Rhetoric Introduction: McKeon and the Rennissanceof Rhetoric I xxxi

Christians to the culture of their age."32These ties assumedtwo The works in this volume stand opposedto the new sophistriesof forms. Somewere symbolic and were manifestedin pagan literature the marketplace where unprincipled eclecticism is aided by com- and art. Others were structural and were embodied in Roman ad' puterized accessto the world's storehouseof philosophic, religious, ministrative institutions and educational curricula. Augustine in- and ethical commonplaces.The technological revolution, with its vented an architectonic productive art of rhetoric to recast, in demand for greater specialization, destroysthe integrated percep Christian form and content, the intellectual structure of human tion modern life requires. The growth of modern technological so- history, culture, and communication. phistriesdirectly reflectsthe isolation of education from the conduct Augustine's task resemblesour own in many ways. Rhetoric is a of daily existence, and signals our acceptanceof the division be- form of symbolic action, and its employment in the political realm tween words and things. predatesits use in any other area of human activity. It treats "po- As an architectonic productive art, rhetoric operateslargely un- tentiality" as well as "actuality" and can serveto Promote as well recognizedin human creativity, where ideas are expressedin the as inhibit the formation of articulate communities. Richard Mc' structure of knowledge,the organization of work, and the definition Keon was keenly aware of this aspectof rhetoric, for he saw it work of community. In a world orderedby technical innovation and mas with limited successin the early days of UNESCO.Our confidenc communication, the principles and practicesof education, business in the dynamics of international dialogue,signified by the numerous and politics flow through and inform each other. The practical ac- institutions we have created to promote the discussionof common tions of managersform the subject matter for scholarsin schoolsof problemsof survival, underlies the role for a rhetoric that takes its businessadministration. Public policy emergesfrom the debatesof commonplacesfrom beyond the immediate requirementsof Persua politicians, the commentariesof analysts, the claims of vested in- sion. While debate, discussion,and controlled confrontation con- terests,and the argumentsof concernedindividuals. Its applications tribute to mutual understandingand can lead to collaboration and are detailed in casestudies constituting the curricula in schoolsof cooperation,McKeon believedthat international bodiesfounded on public policy. In businessand politics the organization of knowledge the architectonic principles ofrhetoric provide the context for shap in the schoolsreflects and affectsthe organization of knowledgeabl ing philosophic ideas as well as for transmitting technical methods skills in the workplace. Work itself acquires new meaning in the of government, industr/, and education. In the context of inter- liberation from menial tasks and the primacy of special knowledge national communication, of life in the "global village," rhetoric Life and labor are structured around the search for cohesion in an can help uncover a body of cultural symbolsappropriate to a world increasingly disruptedworld where diverse,specialized arts and sci- marked by cultural diversity, rapid change, instantaneous com- encesmake competing claims about the nature of the "truth." the potential for massdestruction. munication, and In the emerging community of the world the first problem of Symbols,developed and usedto make common values richer by philosophy-the new metaphysicsor at least the new prolego- the diversity of approachesto them and to make differences menon to all future -will expound the sensein compatible by common coursesof action that solve common which truth is one, despitethe multiplicity of the forms of its problems even when the problems are differently conceived, expression,and the sensein which what is on somegrounds or provide the one practicable alternative to the imposition by in some circumstancestrue is at other times false and danger- force of a single set of symbols in the form of a single set of ous,3a institutions interpreted by a single philosophy.33 These essaysaddress "the first problem of philosophy" by exam- 32. Peter Brown, (Berkeley: University of California Press ining the relationship between thought and expression as it is re69), pp. 264ff. 53. "Symbols, Myths, and Arguments," p. 94 34. "A Philosopher Meditates on Discovery," p. 220. ,crcrciit In*odgoion: illcKeon nnd the Rennissonceof Rhetoric playedout in a variety of philosophiccircumstances. They describ of rhetoric rooted in practical application bu1 m_inore .u.ry*h.r." "Lrr".p, in theoretical speculation.And they detail the history of rhetoric asa tool for creatingdisciplines, arts, systems, and meth' ods. Above all, theseessays anticipate a renaissanceof rhetorical theory and practicewhich promisesto discovernew usesfor rhetoric in contemporaryproblems of community, communication, and ac' tion. -Mark Backman