Revisiting Human Nature: A Thomistic Rationale for the Necessity of Rhetoric

Jeffrey J. Maciejewski Creighton University

Abstract

ABSTRACT In addition to rhetorical theorists, historians of rhetoric mistakenly believe that Aristotle carefully articulated how the use of rhetoric may be thought of as being human. Here, insofar as I believe he left this work undone, I offer an ontological framework to conceive of rhetoric as intrinsic to human nature, using the essentialist paradigm espoused by Aristotle and expanded upon by St. Thomas Aquinas as a theoretical foundation. A prefatory theory is proposed that rhetoric might be thought of as being natural for its teleological orientation toward action.

Journal
Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Published
2011-07-01
DOI
10.1080/15362426.2011.613294
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