Michael Calvin McGee

A Materialist's

Conception of Rhetoric

A Materialist's Conception of Rhetoric
The late Professor McGee's Fragments pages; an important source for rhetoric


• What is usually taken for rhetoric theory is often either rhetorical philosophy or history.
• Theory must be built from the actual discourse practices people use.
• A radical rhetoric as epistemic approach: rhetoric as object,not as ideal.

Looking Back: Idealism in Rhetoric

• Oft-times philosophy or science has encouraged us to think about being able to predict what people should do based on what we think we know.
• Public address has become a sort of art form with prescriptions.
• Composition interests have led us to try to emulate those who have come before.

A Materialist's Perspective I

• Discourse is a social function which permits interactivity among people. It's a medium/a function, not an fine art.
• Rhetoric is a practical art of speaker/speech/audience/occasion/change.

A Materialist's Perspective II

Rhetoric is a natural social practice/activity in the context of which symbolic claims are made on the behavior and/or belief of one or more persons, allegedly in the interest of such individuals and with the strong presumption that such claims will cause meaningful change.

A Materialist's Perspective III

Rhetoric is always a contingent model of:

• the existing environment essentialized into sets of facts.
• estimates of activity sufficient to change essential facts.
• a predicted environment altered by intersubjective activity.

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