Martin Camper
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190677121
- eISBN:
- 9780190677152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190677121.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
Chapter 1 introduces the interpretive stases as a neglected rhetorical method that could be productively employed by scholars to analyze debates over the meaning of texts in virtually any sphere. The ...
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Chapter 1 introduces the interpretive stases as a neglected rhetorical method that could be productively employed by scholars to analyze debates over the meaning of texts in virtually any sphere. The chapter begins with a debate over one of the leaked 2009 “climategate” emails, which seriously damaged the credibility of climatologists, to illustrate the far-reaching consequences of interpretive arguments. A brief sketch is provided of the interpretive stases’ history, from their origins in ancient Greco-Roman legal theory to when they were dropped from rhetorical manuals in the seventeenth century. The chapter explores the relationship between rhetoric and hermeneutics—philosophical, literary, legal, and religious—and argues that no school of hermeneutics offers a general method for analyzing the argumentative push and pull involved in the interpretation of any text. The final part of the chapter outlines the six interpretive stases and discusses how they frame textual interpretation in terms of argument and persuasion.Less
Chapter 1 introduces the interpretive stases as a neglected rhetorical method that could be productively employed by scholars to analyze debates over the meaning of texts in virtually any sphere. The chapter begins with a debate over one of the leaked 2009 “climategate” emails, which seriously damaged the credibility of climatologists, to illustrate the far-reaching consequences of interpretive arguments. A brief sketch is provided of the interpretive stases’ history, from their origins in ancient Greco-Roman legal theory to when they were dropped from rhetorical manuals in the seventeenth century. The chapter explores the relationship between rhetoric and hermeneutics—philosophical, literary, legal, and religious—and argues that no school of hermeneutics offers a general method for analyzing the argumentative push and pull involved in the interpretation of any text. The final part of the chapter outlines the six interpretive stases and discusses how they frame textual interpretation in terms of argument and persuasion.
Martin Camper
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190677121
- eISBN:
- 9780190677152
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190677121.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
Arguing over Texts presents a rhetorical method for analyzing how people disagree over the meaning of texts and how they attempt to reconcile those disagreements through argument. The book recovers ...
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Arguing over Texts presents a rhetorical method for analyzing how people disagree over the meaning of texts and how they attempt to reconcile those disagreements through argument. The book recovers and adapts a classification of recurring types of disagreement over textual meaning, invented by ancient Greek and Roman teachers of rhetoric: the interpretive stases. Drawing on the rhetorical works of Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, and Hermogenes, the book devotes a chapter to each of the six interpretive stases, which classify issues concerning ambiguous words and phrases, definitions of terms, clashes between the text’s letter and its spirit, internal contradictions, applications of the text to novel cases, and the authority of the interpreter or the text itself. From the dispute over Phillis Wheatley’s allegedly self-racist poetry to the controversy over whether some of Abraham Lincoln’s letters provide evidence he was gay, the book offers examples from religion, politics, history, literary criticism, and law to illustrate that the interpretive stases can be employed to analyze debates over texts in virtually any sphere. In addition to its classical rhetorical foundation, the book draws on research from modern rhetorical theory and language science to elucidate the rhetorical, linguistic, and cognitive grounds for the argumentative construction of textual meaning. The method presented in this book thus advances scholars’ ability to examine the rhetorical dynamics of textual interpretation, to trace the evolution of textual meaning, and to explore how communities ground their beliefs and behaviors in texts.Less
Arguing over Texts presents a rhetorical method for analyzing how people disagree over the meaning of texts and how they attempt to reconcile those disagreements through argument. The book recovers and adapts a classification of recurring types of disagreement over textual meaning, invented by ancient Greek and Roman teachers of rhetoric: the interpretive stases. Drawing on the rhetorical works of Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, and Hermogenes, the book devotes a chapter to each of the six interpretive stases, which classify issues concerning ambiguous words and phrases, definitions of terms, clashes between the text’s letter and its spirit, internal contradictions, applications of the text to novel cases, and the authority of the interpreter or the text itself. From the dispute over Phillis Wheatley’s allegedly self-racist poetry to the controversy over whether some of Abraham Lincoln’s letters provide evidence he was gay, the book offers examples from religion, politics, history, literary criticism, and law to illustrate that the interpretive stases can be employed to analyze debates over texts in virtually any sphere. In addition to its classical rhetorical foundation, the book draws on research from modern rhetorical theory and language science to elucidate the rhetorical, linguistic, and cognitive grounds for the argumentative construction of textual meaning. The method presented in this book thus advances scholars’ ability to examine the rhetorical dynamics of textual interpretation, to trace the evolution of textual meaning, and to explore how communities ground their beliefs and behaviors in texts.
James M. May
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780807817599
- eISBN:
- 9781469616322
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469616322.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
By its very nature, the art of oratory involves character. Verbal persuasion entails the presentation of a persona by the speaker that affects an audience for good or ill. This book explores the role ...
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By its very nature, the art of oratory involves character. Verbal persuasion entails the presentation of a persona by the speaker that affects an audience for good or ill. This book explores the role and extent of Cicero's use of ethos and demonstrates its persuasive effect. The book discusses the importance of ethos, not just in classical rhetorical theory but also in the social, political, and judicial milieu of ancient Rome, and then applies his insights to the oratory of Cicero. Ciceronian ethos was a complex blend of Roman tradition, Cicero's own personality, and selected features of Greek and Roman oratory. More than any other ancient literary genre, oratory dealt with constantly changing circumstances, with a wide variety of rhetorical challenges. An orator's success or failure, as well as the artistic quality of his orations, was largely the direct result of responses to these circumstances and challenges. Acutely aware of his audience and its cultural heritage and steeped in the rhetorical traditions of his predecessors, Cicero employed rhetorical ethos with uncanny success. The book analyzes individual speeches from four different periods of Cicero's career, tracing changes in the way Cicero depicted character, both his own and others', as a source of persuasion—changes intimately connected with the vicissitudes of Cicero's career and personal life. It shows that ethos played a major role in almost every Ciceronian speech, that Cicero's audiences were conditioned by common beliefs about character, and finally, that Cicero's rhetorical ethos became a major source for persuasion in his oratory.Less
By its very nature, the art of oratory involves character. Verbal persuasion entails the presentation of a persona by the speaker that affects an audience for good or ill. This book explores the role and extent of Cicero's use of ethos and demonstrates its persuasive effect. The book discusses the importance of ethos, not just in classical rhetorical theory but also in the social, political, and judicial milieu of ancient Rome, and then applies his insights to the oratory of Cicero. Ciceronian ethos was a complex blend of Roman tradition, Cicero's own personality, and selected features of Greek and Roman oratory. More than any other ancient literary genre, oratory dealt with constantly changing circumstances, with a wide variety of rhetorical challenges. An orator's success or failure, as well as the artistic quality of his orations, was largely the direct result of responses to these circumstances and challenges. Acutely aware of his audience and its cultural heritage and steeped in the rhetorical traditions of his predecessors, Cicero employed rhetorical ethos with uncanny success. The book analyzes individual speeches from four different periods of Cicero's career, tracing changes in the way Cicero depicted character, both his own and others', as a source of persuasion—changes intimately connected with the vicissitudes of Cicero's career and personal life. It shows that ethos played a major role in almost every Ciceronian speech, that Cicero's audiences were conditioned by common beliefs about character, and finally, that Cicero's rhetorical ethos became a major source for persuasion in his oratory.
