This innovative text reinvigorates argumentation studies by exploring the experience of argument across cultures, introducing an anthropological perspective into the domains of rhetoric, communication, and philosophy. The Anthropology of Argument fills an important gap in contemporary argumentation theory by shifting the focus away from the purely propositional element of arguments and onto how they emerge from the experiences of peoples with diverse backgrounds, demonstrating how argumentation can be understood as a means of expression and a gathering place of ideas and styles. Confronting the limitations of the Western tradition of logic and searching out the argumentative roles of place, orality, myth, narrative, and audience, it examines the nature of multi-modal argumentation. Tindale analyzes the impacts of colonialism on the field and addresses both optimistic and cynical assessments of contextual difference. The results have implications for our understanding of contemporary argumentative discourse in areas marked by deep disagreement, like politics, law and social policy. The book will interest scholars and upper-level students in communication, philosophy, argumentation theory, anthropology, rhetoric, linguistics, and cultural studies.
Author(s): Christopher W. Tindale
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 212
City: New York
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
An Anthropological Turn
Establishing a “Point of View"
Criticizing the Anthropological View
Orality, Literacy, and the Western Tradition
Outline of the Studies
1 Early Encounters and the Blending of Argumentative Cultures
Introduction: Situations and Their Borders
Comparative Rhetorics
Rhetorology
The Argumentative Situation and the Places of Encounter
Encounter Rhetorics and the Role of the Theoroi
Conclusion: Emerging Rhetorics
2 Beneath the Text: Argumentation and the Pretexts of Orality
An Oral State of Mind
The Prejudices of the Literate Society
Pre-Literate Repositories of Meaning
Orality and Argument
3 Intercultural Reason and the Preliminary Conditions of Argumentation
The Borders of Understanding
Dialogues of the Deaf
Encounter Rhetorics
Preliminary Conditions of Argumentation
Situated Reason
4 The Places of Argument
Introduction
Attending to Place
The Local
Thick Descriptions and Place-Based Reasoning
The Venatic Method and the Argument From Sign
Argumentation in the Age of the Anthropocene
A Closing Objection
5 Myth and Argument
Narrative and Myth
The Power of Myth
Myths and Communicability
Narrative and Audience
Objections and Conclusions
6 Reasons in a Narrative Form
Introduction: Capturing Oral Culture
Narratives and Arguments
Narratives and Images
More Artful Methods
Dennett’s Memes
7 Reasons and the Power of Oral Tradition
Local Knowledge and the Traditions of Argumentation
Narrative Argument and the Power of Oral Traditions
Common Sense; Common Knowledge
Evidence and the Range of Reasons
Oral Versus Written Testimony
Productive Encounters
8 Deep Diversity and Deep Disagreement
Believing Is Seeing
Recognizing Reasons
Counter-Considerations
Leveraging the Roots of Disagreement
Can We Talk?
Forms of Life and Deep Diversity
Conclusion
Conclusion: Recovering Multi-Modal Argumentation
The Theft of Reason
Multi-Modal Argumentation
Those Represented and Those That Represent
Bibliography
Index
