Rhetoric revisited, methodeutic re-imagined

Abstract

The author contextualizes C. S. Peirce’s exploration of rhetoric and methodeutic in reference to the inevitably incomplete work of a radical experimentalist such as Peirce. He tries to show how even in the inaugural stage of semeiotic inquiry “rhetorical” considerations are not entirely absent. Moreover, he attends to some of the most important moments when Peirce re-visited the topic of rhetoric. Finally, he muses about both how Peirce re-imagined rhetoric as methodeutic and how we might ourselves re-imagine yet other possibilities. The essay is written as an invitation to join Peirce’s efforts as co-inquirers, providing near its conclusion a series of “notes” or suggestions for how to carry Peirce’s project forward.