Democracy and Rhetoric: John Dewey on the Arts of Becoming

Series Editor’s Preface

SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE In Democracy and Rhetoric: John Dewey on the Arts of Becoming, Nathan Crick explores what it would mean for rhetoric to act as a means of radical democracy . He claims that the American philosopher John Dewey (1859–1952) points us to an understanding that rhetoric must reassert its status as an art that engages ethics, intellectual inquiry, and aesthetics. In developing a model of rhetorical action based on Dewey’s approach, Professor Crick goes beyond Dewey’s own statements on rhetoric and persuasion to reflect on the implications for rhetorical thought and action of the broad range of Dewey’s philosophical writings on democracy, intellectual inquiry, and aesthetics. Crick’s reflections thus explore what a rhetorical way of thinking can do with the thought of John Dewey and what John Dewey’s views can do for rhetorical theory. Professor Crick argues that, for Dewey, democracy implies faith that men and women can act together to improve their lives. Dewey was suspicious of the claim that democracy was merely a collection of individuals acting separately in their own interests. At the same time, he saw the need not only for conversation and cooperation but also for leadership and persuasion, and for the advocacy of minority views. Rhetoric in this view is a mode of advocacy called for in situations of “moral conflict, cognitive uncertainty, and practical urgency.” Dewey’s philosophy leads to a rhetoric that can be transformative and radical, and it is for this reason, argues Professor Crick, that rhetorical theorists needs to go beyond Dewey’s writings on communication to understand more fully his writings on human character and experience as ever in a process of becoming. In Dewey’s writings on nature, knowing, and aesthetics as human experiences, Professor Crick discovers the radically democratic rhetorical theory that Dewey’s philosophy makes possible. This page intentionally left blank ...