6510/7510 - Session 3: Rhetoric and Truth in the Wake of Descartes

As we saw in Toulmin's "What Is the Problem About Modernity?" René Descartes' philosophy is regarded widely as pivotal, not only in the development of modern philosophy but, more generally, in the development of the modern epoch. Nevertheless, the impact of Cartesian thought on seventeenth-century rhetorical theory and rhetorical education has received little attention by English-speaking historians. This lack of attention is reflected by our anthology, which contains no representatives of seventeenth-century French rhetorical theory and education. Hence, in order to acquire some understanding of how rhetorical theory was influenced by Cartesianism, our third session is devoted to Descartes and some of the essays and treatises in rhetorical theory written in the wake of Cartesianism: (I) an "literary" introduction to Descartes' Discourse on the Method, (II) excerpts from the enormously influential Port-Royal Logic by Arnauld and Nicole, (III) Pascal's "The Art of Persuasion," and (IV) excerpts from Lamy's treatise, The Art of Speaking. In addition to the primary texts, I have selected some scholarly articles/chapters to guide us.

I. An Introduction to Cartesian Philosophy

Ideally, our inquiry into the rhetorical theory of Cartesianism would be grounded in a (re)reading of Discourse on the Method (often referred to as the Discourse on Method). Although the Discourse is not a long text, I think it best to spend our limited time with a commentary that explicates the text from the perspective of literary interests; so we will use Gerald Bruns's "A Literary Man's Guide to the Discourse on Method (1637)" as our introduction to Cartesian philosophy.

Required - Secondary

• Gerald L. Bruns, "A Literary Man's Guide to the Discourse on Method (1637)," boundary 2 8, no. 2 (1980): 141-64.

Suggested - Primary

• René Descartes, "Discourse on the Method," in The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, vol. I, trans. John Cottingham, et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 111-51.
• René Descartes, "The Passions of the Soul," in The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, vol. I, trans. John Cottingham, et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 325-404.

II. A Cartesian Attack on Rhetorical Education: The Port-Royal Logic

The impact of Cartesianism within education was largely due to the long influence of La Logique ou l'art de penser by Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole, who were associated with the Jansenist convent at Port-Royal (hence "the Port-Royal Logic"). In part, Arnauld and Nicole used Descartes' thought as the foundation for a critique of the value of rhetorical invention, in particular, the use of topoi ("topics"). Next week, we will see that Vico's defense of rhetorical education in the early eighteenth century is a response to the influence of Arnauld and Nicole's book.

Required - Primary

• Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole, excerpts from Logic, Or, the Art of Thinking, trans. Jill Vance Buroker. 5th ed., rev. and newly augmented ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996).

Required - Secondary

• Thomas M Carr, "Port-Royal and Eloquence: Rhetoric At the Margins," in Descartes and the Resilience of Rhetoric (Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1990), 62-87.

Recommended

• Hugh M. Davidson, "Port-Royal: Logic vs. Rhetoric (I)," in Audience, Words, and Art ([Columbus]: Ohio State University Press, 1965), 57-85. (Walker Reserve)
• ---, "Port-Royal: Logic vs. Rhetoric (II)," in Audience, Words, and Art ([Columbus]: Ohio State University Press, 1965), 87-108. (Walker Reserve)

III. Pascal's "The Art of Persuasion"

Pascal also was associated with Port-Royal. But unlike Arnauld and Nicole, he was skeptical toward the application of Descartes' geometrical method outside the realm of mathematics and recognized persuasion as necessary component of human interaction. In his "L'Art de persuader," we will find his inquiry into the psychology of persuasion.

Required - Primary

• Blaise Pascal, "The Art of Persuasion," in Pensées and Other Writings. ed. Anthony Levi, trans. Honor Levi (Oxford ; New York: Oxford UP, 1995), 193-204.

Required - Secondary

• Hugh M. Davidson, "Pascal's Two Arts of Persuasion," in Audience, Words, and Art: Studies in Seventeenth-Century French Rhetoric ([Columbus]: Ohio State UP, 1965), 109-40.

Recommended

• Samuel IJsseling, "Pascal and the Art of Persuasion," in Rhetoric and Philosophy in Conflict (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1976), 71-74. (Walker Reserve)
• Kathleen M. Jamieson, "Pascal vs. Descartes: A Clash Over Rhetoric in the Seventeenth Century," Communication Monographs 43, no. 1 (1976): 44-50.
• Louis Marin, "'Pascal': Text, Author, Discourse.," trans. Maria Minich Brewer and Daniel August Brewer, Yale French Studies 52, Graphesis: Perspectives in Literature and Philosophy (1975): 129-51.

IV. Lamy's Art of Speaking

The single figure from this period who receives extended attention in Conley's Rhetoric in the European Tradition is Bernard Lamy, another militant Cartesian. His L'Art de parler is known for its attempts to rethink the theory of rhetoric from within a Cartesian framework. In addition to the table of contents and Preface, I have excerpted all of Part Two (on figured speech) and the first three chapters of Part Five (on the art of persuasion).

Required - Primary

• Bernard Lamy, Excerpts from Art of Speaking, in The Rhetorics of Thomas Hobbes and Bernard Lamy, ed. John T. Harwood (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1986).

Required - Secondary

• Barbara Warnick, "The Old Rhetoric vs. The New Rhetoric: The Quarrel Between the Ancients and the Moderns," Communication Monographs 49, no. 4 (1982): 263-76.

Recommended

• Thomas M Carr, "Lamy's Science of Persuasion: Vivacity and the Inclinations," in Descartes and the Resilience of Rhetoric (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990), 125-67. (Walker Reserve)
• Thomas M. Conley, "Lamy's Rhétorique, ou L'Art de parler," in Rhetoric in the European Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), 173-76.
• Douglas Ehninger, "Bernard Lami's L'Art de Parler: A Critical Analysis," Quarterly Journal of Speech 32, no. 4 (1946): 429-34.

< Session 2 | Session 4 >

Last update: 9/16/07

The contents of this page do not reflect any official positions of Middle Tennessee State University. The sole responsibility for these contents lies with the author:

Dr. James N. Comas (James.Comas@mtsu.edu)
Middle Tennessee State University
English Dept., Box 70
Murfreesboro, TN 37132
615-898-2606

Unless noted otherwise, the work on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

Some pages on this site contain material from my classes taught in The Department of English at Middle Tennessee State University.

This document is valid XHTML 1.0 Strict and uses CSS 2.1.