Landmark Essays on Rhetoric of Science: Case Studies

Rhetoric of science is the study of how scientists persuade and dissuade each other about nature. The studies in this volume exemplify that approach. The main topics in these papers debate physics and biology, also touching on archaeology and experimental psychology.

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Rhetoric of science is the study of how scientists persuade and dissuade each other and the rest of us about nature -- the study of how scientists argue in the making of knowledge. In fragmented form, it goes back as long as the two fields have existed, and it makes various appearances throughout the history of each.

The studies in this volume are exemplars for rhetoric of science. They chart the field, exhibiting the governing themes of rhetorical criticism when its eye turns to science -- suasive greatness, paradigmatic debates, public policy concerns, and composition issues. Starting at the top, the papers take as their main courses the two disciplines highest in the scientific food chain -- physics and biology -- with side orders of archaeology and experimental psychology. They employ a methodological tool-set largely inherited from Aristotle, but also draw pluralistically on related enterprises, such as pragmatics, ethology, and literary criticism. Engaging the ruling theoretical issues of the field, these studies are landmarks that define the field.