The rhetorical understanding of science: An explication and critical commentary

Abstract

Inspired by the Weltanschauungen opposition to positivist philosophy of science and the current interest in the relation of rhetoric and knowledge, some writers in rhetorical theory have argued that science may be seen as a fundamentally rhetorical process. This essay examines the presuppositional tenability of this view and challenges the sense in which this view is articulated in contemporary rhetorical scholarship.