Walter Fisher

Class notes from Ron Wright's COM 300 (Group and Public Com. Theory course), University of Arizona, including a PP slide show.

1. That narrative is what makes reason and values meaningful. Man becomes Homo Narrans.

The base: Toward a Logic of Good Reasons.

There is logical reasoning much as it has been treated historically. Such considerations include questions about:

Then there is reasoning with values, or good reasons. Such reasoning, when added to traditional considerations of logic, requires that arguers:

Fisher argues that human communication must be considered in more than its rational argumentative/logical form; that its historical and value aspects are every bit as important.

However, presentation of the logic of good reasons was inadequate, as it failed to address questions such as: how does one present values in argumentation? Once presented, how can one evaluate the "relative value" of one value from that of another? How does one tell which value should win out?

In response, Fisher proposed the narrative paradigm, the idea that man is a story telling animal at heart, that human communication, especially argumentation, is largely a storytelling process, and that one should test the narrative rationality of stories as a way to further test argumentative grounds. After testing for the logic of good reasons (by examining factors of traditional rationality and the values orientations inherent in the arguments), advocates and audiences should test the narrative rationality of the stories told.

 

Narrative rationality has two major aspects: narrative probability and narrative fidelity.

 

Main criticisms: There are many complaints/arguments against Fisher's ideas, including:

back to lecture note index