What Does Pragmatic Meliorism Mean for Rhetoric?

Abstract

This article considers how rhetorical scholarship might proceed if it were to take the charge of pragmatic meliorism seriously. After discussing the notion of meliorism as employed by John Dewey, I argue that it would involve a radical reshaping of method in rhetorical theory, criticism, and pedagogy. Not all research must be meliorative, but research that is meliorative is characterized by an engagement with lived experience. With this characteristic in mind, I conclude by proposing four maxims that can guide melioristic work in rhetoric.It is a truism to say that the field of rhetoric attempts to study language and its myriad uses in a way that matters for lived experience. No less a proponent of rhetoric as Wayne Booth (2004) asserts this life-changing value of rhetoric (and presumably its study) in his final book:The quality of our lives, especially the ethical and communal quality, depends to an astonishing degree on the quality of our rhetoric . . .. Unless we pay more attention to improving our communication at all levels of life, unless we study more carefully the rhetorical strategies we all depend on, consciously, unconsciously, or subconsciously, we will continue to succumb to unnecessary violence, to loss of potential friends, and to the decay of community. (p. xii)

The Public and Its Affective Problems

“…, Farrell 1976;Bitzer 1978;Finnegan 2003;Crick 2004;Stob 2005;Stroud 2010Stroud , 2011 can ill afford to ignore them. Transactions, I argue, may also have affective consequences that are part of a culturally influenced inner reality.…”

Toward a Deweyan Theory of Communicative Mindfulness

“…Communication can also be immediately pleasurable or a drudgery to be endured to achieve a valued goal. An account of communicative mindfulness is important insofar as it can inform interventions, pedagogical efforts, and meliorative work in communication (Stroud, 2010). Yet there remains a significant disjunction between conceptualizing mindfulness in general or in terms specific to communication.…”