Human Communication as Narration

Walter R. Fisher

Description

This book addresses questions that have concerned rhetoricians, literary theorists, and philosophers since the time of the pre-Socratics and the Sophists: How do people come to believe and to act on the basis of communicative experiences? What is the nature of reason and rationality in these experiences? What is the role of values in human decision making and action? How can reason and values be assessed? In answering these questions, Professor Fisher proposes a reconceptualization of humankind as homo narrans, that all forms of human communication need to be seen as stories—symbolic interpretations of aspects of the world occurring in time and shaped by history, culture, and character; that individuated forms of discourse should be considered "good reasons"—values or value-laden warrants for believing or acting in certain ways; and that a narrative logic that all humans have natural capacities to employ ought to be conceived of as the logic by which human communication is assessed.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie du langage
• Concept
• Inférence
• Genre
• Narration
• Reason
• Langage
• Language
• Rhetoric
• Semantics
• Thought
• Syllogism
• Dialectic
• Rationality
• Narrator
• Stylistics
• Human communication
• Narrative
• Inference
• Inductive reasoning
• Discourse analysis
• Narrative logic
• Narrative paradigm
• Logic
• Philosophy of language
• Philosophy
• Theory of Forms

Informations

• Publié par: University of South Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 03 juin 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781643362427
• Langue: English

Extrait

HUMAN COMMUNICATION AS NARRATION
STUDIES IN RHETORIC/COMMUNICATION
Carroll C. Arnold, Series Editor
Richard B. Gregg
Symbolic Inducement and Knowing: A Study in the Foundations of Rhetoric
Richard A. Cherwitz and James W. Hikins
Communication and Knowledge: An Investigation in Rhetorical Epistemology
Herbert W. Simons and Aram A. Aghazarian, Editors
Form, Genre, and the Study of Political Discourse
Walter R. Fisher
Human Communication as Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value, and Action
David Payne
Coping with Failure: The Therapeutic Uses of Rhetoric
Human Communication as Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value, and Action
by Walter R. Fisher
University of South Carolina Press
Copyright University of South Carolina 1987, 1989
Cloth edition published by the University of South Carolina Press, 1987 Paperback edition published by the University of South Carolina Press, 1989 Ebook edition published in Columbia, South Carolina, by the University of South Carolina Press, 2021
www.uscpress.com
Manufactured in the United States of America
30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
F. Scott Fitzgerald, excerpted from The Great Gatsby . Copyright 1925 Charles Scribner s Sons; copyright renewed 1953 Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan. Reprinted with the permission of Charles Scribner s Sons. Reprinted with permission of The Bodley Head from THE BODLEY HEAD SCOTT FITZGERALD.
Excerpts from Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller reprinted by permission of International Creative Management, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/ .
ISBN 978-0-87249-500-5 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-87249-624-8 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-64336-242-7 (ebook)
To Beverly, Roxanne, Thomas, Martin, and their children
CONTENTS
Foreword
Afterword
Preface
Part I The Historical Exigence
1. In the Beginning
From Philosophy to Technical Discourse
Voices on Behalf of Poetic
Voices on Behalf of Rhetoric
Conclusion
2. The Connection with Logic
Dialogue, Dialectic, and Logic
Aristotle: The Beginnings of Technical and Rhetorical Logic
Technical Logic: Handmaiden of Learned Discourse
Rhetorical Logic: Handmaiden of Public Discourse
From Geometry and Mathematics to Language and Jurisprudence
Narrative Rationality as a Rhetorical Logic Conclusion
Part II The Narrative Paradigm and Related Theories
3. Narration as a Paradigm of Human Communication 57
The Rational-World Paradigm
The Narrative Paradigm
A Case: Public Moral Argument
Conclusion
4. An Elaboration
Relationships to Other Theories
Social-Scientific Theories and the Narrative Paradigm
Humanistic Theories and the Narrative Paradigm
Conclusion
Part III Narrative Rationality, Good Reasons, and Audiences
5. Assessing Narrative Fidelity: The Logic of Good Reasons
The Meaning of Logic
Good Reasons
The Logic of Good Reasons
Criterial Analysis
Hierarchies of Values
Rationality and Rhetorical Competence
Conclusion
6. Narrative Rationality and Qualities of Audiences
Philosophical, Political, and Personal Characteristics of Audiences
Justice: The Motivational Characteristic
Critical Rationalism: The Competence Characteristic
Concepts of Audiences Reconsidered
Conclusion
Part IV Applications
7. Narrativity and Politics: The Case of Ronald Reagan
Reagan s Rhetoric
Reagan s Story
Reagan s Character
Reagan s Implied Audience
Conclusion
8. Argument in Drama and Literature
Rhetoric, Poetic, and Aesthetic Proof
Argument in Death of a Salesman
Argument in The Great Gatsby
Conclusion
9. Choosing between Socrates and Callicles: An Assessment of Philosophical Discourse
Socrates Story
Callicles Story
Choosing between Socrates and Callicles
Conclusion
10. In Retrospect
Author Index
Subject Index
FOREWORD
Beginning with the assumption that humans are essentially storytellers, Walter R. Fisher proposes that all forms of human communication are most usefully interpreted and assessed from a narrational perspective. He believes that beneath the learned and imposed structures by means of which we give discourse such forms as argument, exposition, drama, and fiction, the human species is always pursuing a narrative logic . From infancy, Fisher argues, we interpret and evaluate new stories against older stories acquired through experience. We search new accounts for their faithfulness to what we know, or think we know, and for their internal and external coherence. Later we learn more sophisticated criteria and standards for assessing a story s fidelity and coherence, but constructing, interpreting, and evaluating discourse as story remains our primary, innate, species-specific logic.
That principles of formal logic inadequately explain informal rationality and human valuing has been well established in recent years, especially through studies in argumentation by such writers as Stephen Toulmin, Cha m Perelman, Douglas Ehninger, and Wayne Brockriede. Building on their work, as well as on that of other distinguished writers, especially Kenneth Burke and Alasdair MacIntyre, Fisher details a new logic, one appropriate to his basic conception of human communication as narration. He proposes a conception of logical processes that is broader than theory of argument has acknowledged to date. Fisher contends that narrative rationality underlies understanding and evaluation of any form of human communication that is viewed rhetorically, as an inducement to attitude, belief, or action.
During the past decade, Fisher has presented and argued for several features and applications of his general position. That work has received plaudits from both rhetoricians and philosophers interested in intentional communication. In Human Communication as Narration , Fisher now draws together into a single argument or story the results of his extensive reading and analyses. Here, he presents his theoretical claims in comprehensive form, places them in their context vis vis the history of rhetorical and logical theory in the West, and illustrates the critical usefulness of his formulations by applying them in analyzing several different forms or genres of discourse.
Human Communication as Narration supplements and challenges major contributions made by other students of rhetoric in the last several decades. By providing a logic, his work moves beyond Burke s dramatism; by grounding this logic in narration, he broadens and deepens Perelman s approach to practical reasoning. Rhetorical and philosophical research on informal logic and argumentation is incorporated within Fisher s philosophical/critical system with the simple caveat that argumentative forms only occur together with and in addition to a ubiquitous narrative logic. Contemporary attempts to identify generic forms of discourse-the subject of Form, Genre, and the Study of Political Discourse , published by the University of South Carolina Press in its Rhetoric/Communi-In like ways, Fisher s analysis of communication accepts and incorporates principles of narrative logic are recognized as operating within all genres. In like ways. Fisher s analysis of communciation accepts and incorporates contemporary research on stylistics, on the assumption of roles in communications, on the influences of mythic conditioning, and on the nature of symbolic inducement. Fisher s claim is that all such communicative features and functions arise from and evolve out of human beings innate impulses to explore the coherence of any account and its fidelity to the known.
Walter Fisher s highly original book merits close attention from all persons concerned with the theory and criticism of practical communication.
Carroll C. Arnold Editor, Rhetoric/Communication University of South Carolina Press
AFTERWORD
Conversation about the narrative paradigm grows apace. The most constructive contribution I can make to the dialogue at this moment, I think, is to supplement what I said in the clothbound edition of Human Communication as Narration , which concerned what the narrative paradigm is . Here I would like to indicate what it is not .
First, it is not a rhetoric. As I say in the conclusion, The narrative paradigm is the foundation on which a complete rhetoric needs to be built. This structure would provide a comprehensive explanation of the creation, composition, adaptation, presentation, and reception of symbolic messages.
Second, the book is not about rhetorical criticism, or at least the way I would deal with the topic. While it is true that the narrative paradigm concerns the interpretation and assessment of rhetorical messages, the book does not explore the ways in which the rhetorical critic thinks or writes. A book on rhetorical criticism would do this by examining the concepts and practices (actual examples) that mark the explication or evaluation of texts read from different perspectives: What can we reveal about a text by knowing its genre? What can we say of interest about a text by knowing its author? What can we disclose in a text by knowing the audience(s) for whom it is intended or meaningful? And what can we expose in a text by reconstructing or deconstructing it in terms of itself? Whatever theory a critic may adopt is but a means to answering one or more of these questions. It is the case, of course, that good answers can produce or modify theory. The interest of the critic, however, is to communicate what is remarkable about the text.
Third, the narrative paradigm is not a celebration of narration as an individuated form-as anecdote, depiction, characterization, and so on-or as a genre in and of itself. If the narrative paradigm celebrates anything, it celebrates human beings, and it does this by reaffirming their nature as storytellers. It affirms that narration as individuated form and as genre-like other individuated forms (such as argument) and genre (such as argumentation)-are expr