Constructing Chaim Perelman: Implications of the New Rhetoric for Teaching Argumentation in the Composition Classroom
Julie Margaret Farrar
- School: Purdue University (0183)
- Degree: Ph.D.
- Date: 1994 pp: 241
- Advisor: Lauer, Janice M.
- Source: DAI-A 56/02, p. 529, Aug 1995
- Subjects: Language, General (0679); Education, Language And Literature (0279)
- ProQuest Document Number:
- ISBN:
- UMI Number: AAT 9523343
Abstract:
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A review of composition scholarship and pedagogy concerning argumentative discourse
reveals a focus on analysis and deconstruction of an argument rather than its construction.
Over-emphasis on syllogistic reasoning suggests a lack of attention toward argumentation
research carried on outside of composition. Significant elements in the New Rhetoric theory
of Chaim Perelman are identified and discussed with suggestions on how his theory might
inform the teaching of argumentation in the composition classroom. The New Rhetoric rejects
structural validity as the measure of arguments because nonmathematical reasoning offers
only probable conclusions. Perelman's theory emphasizes adherence of the audience as both
the object and starting point of argumentation. To achieve persuasion the rhetor must utilize
values and beliefs shared with the audience. As a result, that audience serves as an inventional
tool that aids in the creation of the discourse. If formal logic and its language are not the
model of argumentation, then Perelman and other rhetoricians must work within the ambiguities
of natural language. Current linguistic theories are applied to persuasive discourse to
provide a linguistic description of argumentation. Using script theory, pseudo-invariant
and invariant assumptions as well as semantic recursion triggers are identified in texts
to support Perelman's argument that 'quasi-logical' arguments gain strength because of their
linguistic resemblance to formal logical structures. As Perelman views it, arguments gain
strength by using language to achieve 'presence' in the mind of the audience, an act which
involves creating an association between concepts which are accepted by the audience and those
which are less readily accepted. This notion applies to Perelman's quasi-logical arguments,
as well as techniques based on the structure of reality and techniques establishing the
structure of reality. The implications of Perelman's New Rhetoric for composition pedagogy
are (1) argumentation pedagogy must shift from mathematical reasoning; (2) students must
be taught to build arguments from shared beliefs; (3) they must be taught that arguments
derive strength by creating presence, linking ideas to ideas and ideas to readers.
The process of constructing arguments and the audience's role in that endeavor become
the focus of the classroom.
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