Zen in the Art of Rhetoric: An Inquiry Into Coherence
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Drawing on poetry, personal narratives, critical analysis, and epistemological explorations this book expands traditional conceptions of rhetoric beyond an "art of persuasion" to a power to manage diverse conceptions of reality, freeing the study and practice of discourse from the essentializing constraints of foundationist philosophy. As an "inquiry into coherence," the book explores social, political, and pedagogical issues ranging from racism, to cultural and ethnic diversity, to the role of argument and persuasion in the creation and perpetuation of difference. The result of this exploration is as understanding of rhetoric as a Tao, a Way of being, thinking, and speaking grounded in what the author calls "dialogic coherence," an actively non-argumentative approach to language, life, and method that is based upon the philosophies and practices of the Eastern martial arts. Booknews McPhail (communications, U. of Utah) first takes a new look at the relationship between Zen Buddhism and rhetoric, then examines the epistemological assumptions shared by pre-classical and postmodern rhetorics and Buddhist metaphysics. He finds that the concept of rhetoric articulated by the Greek Sophists parallels both the questioning of duality posed by Zen thinkers and the critique of negation advanced by some postmodern theorists. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Preface: Way of the WarriorIntroduction: Zen and Rhetoric11To Grasp the Words and Die192Beginner's Mind433Otherness654Emptiness935One Hand Clapping1136Coherence1317Honoring the Form149Notes169References195Index215
