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Peirce’s “Ideas, stray or stolen, about scientific writing” and the relationship between methodeutic, speculative rhetoric, and the universal art of rhetoric

  • Gabriele Gava EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: November 3, 2017
Semiotica
From the journal Semiotica Volume 2018 Issue 220

Abstract

This paper is a reading of Peirce’s manuscript “Ideas, stray or stolen, about scientific writing.” The latter text has been considered to be a key for understanding the relationship between speculative rhetoric and methodeutic. While I agree that it includes essential reflections on the third branch of Peirce’s logic, I will argue that the classification of rhetoric studies that it contains cannot be used to clarify the way in which methodeutic and speculative rhetoric are related to one another. I will first introduce the classification as it is presented by Peirce in “Ideas, stray or stolen, about scientific writing” and list some problems that immediately arise when we identify methodeutic with the rhetoric of science. Then, I will elucidate Peirce’s distinction between the universal art of rhetoric, speculative rhetoric, and ordinary rhetoric. I will argue that the classification of rhetoric studies in “Ideas, stray or stolen, about scientific writing” should be seen as a classification of the ways in which we can obtain different ordinary rhetorics specifying the contents of speculative rhetoric for different contexts of sign use. To finish, I will propose a different approach to support the claim that methodeutic is a subdivision of speculative rhetoric.

Keywords: Charles S. Peirce; rhetoric; methodeutic

References

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Published Online: 2017-11-03
Published in Print: 2018-01-26

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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  16. Peirce's rhetoric and methodeutic
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  18. Peirce’s “Ideas, stray or stolen, about scientific writing” and the relationship between methodeutic, speculative rhetoric, and the universal art of rhetoric
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  21. Methodeutic and the order of inquiry
https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2016-0076
Keywords for this article
Charles S. Peirce; rhetoric; methodeutic

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  3. Introduction: Multimodality in argumentation
  4. The thinness of multimodal argument: The problem of under–specification
  5. Discussing discourse modalities in argument theory: Reconsidering a paradigm
  6. Multimodal argumentation: Beyond the verbal/visual divide
  7. The thickness of multimodal argument: The virtues of condensation
  8. Visual rhetorical argumentation
  9. Multimodal meaning-construction and the logical structure of arguments
  10. It’s all about logics?! Analyzing the rhetorical structure of multimodal filmic text
  11. The argumentative and rhetorical function of multimodal metonymy
  12. Multimodality in the analysis, design, and support of argumentative activities
  13. On the production of a multimodal news item: An argumentative approach
  14. Argumentation in participant-driven photo interviews: A case in ICT for development in Mozambique
  15. The collaborative dimensions of argument maps: A socio-visual approach
  16. Peirce's rhetoric and methodeutic
  17. Introduction: Peirce’s rhetoric and methodeutic
  18. Peirce’s “Ideas, stray or stolen, about scientific writing” and the relationship between methodeutic, speculative rhetoric, and the universal art of rhetoric
  19. The problematics of truth and solidarity in Peirce’s rhetoric
  20. Speculative rhetoric, methodeutic, and Peirce’s hexadic sign-systems
  21. Methodeutic and the order of inquiry
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