Philosophy & Rhetoric Jun 2019

Things of the World: Migration, Presence, and the Arts of Presencing

Ralph Cintrón University of Illinois Chicago ; Jason Schneider DePaul University

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis essay argues for the value of presence as rhetorical heuristic. Beginning with the philosophical tradition, the authors establish a long-standing interest in presence or isness, understood as the thing-itself outside subjectivity. We then trace how rhetorical theorists including Aristotle, Quintilian, and Perelman have privileged isness as a baseline for true conviction, positioning rhetoric as an effort to imitate material proofs. Such views highlight the tension between presence (things of the world in their isness) and the arts of presencing (the capacity of words and symbols to shape an isness), suggesting a generative frame for analysis. To demonstrate, we examine global migration. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among undocumented migrants, we posit that these individuals' paradoxical experiences of bodily presence but legal absence reveal a fraught interplay among rhetoric, state power, and competing notions of truth. However, immigration is only a case study; presence is a much more widely applicable heuristic.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2019-06-22
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.52.2.0115
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical theory writing across the curriculum qualitative research race and writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

  1. Daniel et al. (2025)
    Complicating Marx’s Role in Rhetorical Studies
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Izaguirre (2024)
    Wrenching Democracy from Rhetoric: Rancière, Ancient Rhetoric, and Demagoguery
    Philosophy & Rhetoric
  3. Kalin et al. (2022)
    Rhetoric, Methodology, and a Question of Onto-Epistemological Access
    Philosophy & Rhetoric

Cites in this index (5)

  1. Sundvall (2018)
    Without a World: The Rhetorical Potential and “Dark Politics” of Object-Oriente…
    Philosophy & Rhetoric
  2. Rivers (2015)
    Deep Ambivalence and Wild Objects: Toward a Strange Environmental Rhetoric
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  3. Hartelius (2013)
    Face-ing Immigration:<i>Prosopopeia</i>and the “Muslim-Arab-Middle Eastern” Other
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  4. Atkinson et al. (2008)
    Presence and Global Presence in Genres of Self-Presentation: A Framework for Co…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  5. Gross (2005)
    Presence as argument in the public sphere
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Also cites 18 works outside this index ↓
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  4. Cisneros, Josue David. 2011. “(Re)bordering the Civic Imaginary: Rhetoric, Hybridity, and Citizenship in La G…
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CrossRef global citation count: 3 View in citation network →

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