Originating Difference in Rhetorical Theory: Lord Monboddo's Obsession with Language Origins Theory

Rhetoric Society Quarterly Oct 2008

Originating Difference in Rhetorical Theory: Lord Monboddo's Obsession with Language Origins Theory

Phillip P. Marzluf Kansas State University

Abstract

Historians of rhetoric have largely neglected eighteenth-century Language Origins Theory (LOT). Yet, as a theory that interconnects language, human nature, and human difference, LOT is an important and central inquiry to modern formations of rhetoric, particularly in how they engage with ethics of difference. Examining how the Scottish rhetorician and Enlightenment intellectual, Lord Monboddo, bases his rhetoric on an ethically problematic version of LOT, this article urges historians and students of rhetoric to be wary of the traces of LOT in canonical rhetorical histories as well as in contemporary theories and pedagogical practices.

Journal: Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published: 2008-10-14
DOI: 10.1080/02773940802167591
Open Access: Closed
Topics: rhetorical theory

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

Also cites 9 works outside this index ↓

10.1017/CBO9780511486647

↗
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199244843.003.0001

↗
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199244843.003.0007

↗
Farrell Thomas B. (1993)

Norms of Rhetorical Culture

↗
10.1017/CHOL9780521867429.009

↗
Jasinski James (2001)

Sourcebook on Rhetoric: Key Concepts in Contemporary Rhetorical Studies

↗
Miller Thomas P. (1997)

The Formation of College English

↗
Reid Thomas (1997)

An Inquiry into the Human Mind: On the Principles of Common Sense

↗
Shapin Steven (1994)

A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England

↗

CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network →