Skip to main content
Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

Bristol University Press

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

1 What’s Wrong with Aristotle?

  • , and

Abstract

This chapter examines how traditional legal rhetoric rests on a classical rhetoric foundation that normalizes inequality in various forms. The chapter starts with Aristotle and looks at his contributions to rhetoric—an essence-based approach to categories, the syllogistic form, and conceptions of hierarchy and inequality. The chapter then traces how traditional legal rhetoric has inherited these classical rhetorical thought structures. Then, by analyzing a few key judicial opinions, the chapter shows how traditional legal reasoning silences outsiders, limits the story that can be told, and produces unjust outcomes.

Abstract

This chapter examines how traditional legal rhetoric rests on a classical rhetoric foundation that normalizes inequality in various forms. The chapter starts with Aristotle and looks at his contributions to rhetoric—an essence-based approach to categories, the syllogistic form, and conceptions of hierarchy and inequality. The chapter then traces how traditional legal rhetoric has inherited these classical rhetorical thought structures. Then, by analyzing a few key judicial opinions, the chapter shows how traditional legal reasoning silences outsiders, limits the story that can be told, and produces unjust outcomes.

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents iii
  3. Detailed Contents iv
  4. List of Figures and Tables viii
  5. About the Authors x
  6. Introduction 1
  7. What’s Wrong with Aristotle? 9
  8. Problematizing Aristotle: Renovating and Remodeling Traditional Legal Rhetoric 36
  9. Shifting the Focus from the West 66
  10. Multicultural Rhetorics 96
  11. Reproducing the Canon, Reproducing Inequity (Traditional Rhetoric) 129
  12. Interrupting the Canon 163
  13. Disrupting the Canon: Multicultural Rhetorical Strategies in Action 205
  14. References 277
  15. Index 294
Critical and Comparative Rhetoric
This chapter is in the book Critical and Comparative Rhetoric
https://doi.org/10.56687/9781529226034-005

Chapters in this book

  1. Front Matter i
  2. Contents iii
  3. Detailed Contents iv
  4. List of Figures and Tables viii
  5. About the Authors x
  6. Introduction 1
  7. What’s Wrong with Aristotle? 9
  8. Problematizing Aristotle: Renovating and Remodeling Traditional Legal Rhetoric 36
  9. Shifting the Focus from the West 66
  10. Multicultural Rhetorics 96
  11. Reproducing the Canon, Reproducing Inequity (Traditional Rhetoric) 129
  12. Interrupting the Canon 163
  13. Disrupting the Canon: Multicultural Rhetorical Strategies in Action 205
  14. References 277
  15. Index 294
Downloaded on 7.5.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.56687/9781529226034-005/html?lang=en
Scroll to top button