Overview
"Nola J. Heidlebaugh considers the question of how, in an age of diversity and pluralism, contemporary society can productively address divisive issues. Looking at the dominant postmodern understandings of rhetoric, as well as at arguments extracted from Thomas S. Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Heidlebaugh finds that many social debates are regarded as intractable because of an incommensurability between the conceptions figuring in the competing positions taken. She offers a redefinition of rhetoric that moves beyond stalemates and produces more inventive arguments."--BOOK JACKET.Synopsis
"Nola J. Heidlebaugh considers the question of how, in an age of diversity and pluralism, contemporary society can productively address divisive issues. Looking at the dominant postmodern understandings of rhetoric, as well as at arguments extracted from Thomas S. Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Heidlebaugh finds that many social debates are regarded as intractable because of an incommensurability between the conceptions figuring in the competing positions taken. She offers a redefinition of rhetoric that moves beyond stalemates and produces more inventive arguments."--BOOK JACKET.
Booknews
In an age of diversity and pluralism, asks Hiedlebaugh (communication studies, Oswego State U. of New York), how can people talk productively about those issues that most divide them. Two main sub- questions generated by her investigation are how people can reason together to make good decisions when standards for what counts as reasonable vary profoundly, and how can they know how to produce good rhetoric when standards for what counts as good are shifting. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)