Includes bibliographical references (pages 131-151) and index
Introduction : the classical background -- The modernity of early modernity -- From early to late modernity -- Modernizing rhetoric : recuperation and response -- Inquiry possibilities
Since antiquity, philosophy and rhetoric have traditionally been cast as rivals, with the former often lauded as a search for logical truth and the latter usually disparaged as empty speech. But in this erudite intellectual history, Nancy S. Struever stakes out a claim for rhetoric as the more productive form of inquiry. Struever views rhetoric through the lens of modality, arguing that rhetoric's guiding interest in what is possible--as opposed to philosophy's concern with what is necessary--makes it an ideal tool for understanding politics. Innovative readings of Hobbes and Vico allow her to r
