V's Pick #10: Rhetoric and Reality by James Berlin

Sorry about the picture - I couldn't find a single other photo of the cover. 


Anyway, this book is a doozy, so grab some coffee for this post. 


Berlin is a well-cited and well-respected Rhet/Comp scholar and I've read many authors who've based their lifes' work on his ideas...now I know why. This seminal text lays out the entire history of rhetoric within Composition within the US (as per the title). Here's a synopsis: until 1850, we taught rhetoric in college using the British texts of Blair, Campbell and Whately. What emerged as the field grew and expanded into the 20th century were three main epistemologies of rhetoric in regard to writing: objective, subjective and transactional. Within those three epistemologies, three major types of rhetoric organized: current-traditional, behavorist and semantic/linguistic. Berlin organized Rhetoric and Reality by these epistemologies and I'll give you a breakdown of them below. However, before I start, it's important to note that at almost every point in our history, more than one major rhetoric has been in play. Also, rhetorics and ideologies are always inter-realted. FYC (First-Year Composition) responds to society as a whole and thus, all of these rhetorics are important parts of its history. With regard to Berlin's treatment of the three epistemologies, we should be reminded that our pedagogical choices have repercussions. 


I. Objective Epistemology
- a positivist approach; truth exists only in that which can be empirically studied (science)
- the writers' job is to observe reality objectively and be clear/precise; audiences are also objective, invention has no place, grammatical correctness is key (think: Fulkerson's formalist axiology)
- truth is only what can be communicated, if something cannot be communicated, it's not truth


There are 3 types of objective rhetoric:
A.) behavorist - Skinner; learning is observable and can be measured
B.) semantist - German theories; avoid the distortion of language, be clear and that is truth
C.) linguistic - 1950s; thought to bring new approaches through linguistics but epistemology is the same - truth is prior to knowledge


II. Subjective Epistemology 
- truth originates in the individual but it can also be communicated
- Plato, Freud, Maslow, Thoreau 
- the rhetoric of liberal culture
- ordinary language can be tweaked (think: metaphor) to connect to the "supersensory" (12) and thus, explain truths
- truth can only be confirmed through personal experience
- writing cannot be taught, rather, the teacher provides an environment for the student to self-discover (like the Freudian therapist)
- metaphor can be taught and subjective writing classes do the following: journal keeping, metaphor making and peer editing
- peers in the classroom serve as "friendly critics" (14) and do not tell the writer how to do things, rather, the writers only job is to attend to their personal vision
- think: Fulkerson's expressionist axiology 


III. Transactional Epistemology 
- focused on the interaction between subject/object/audience


There are 3 types of transactional rhetoric: 
A.) Classical - most common; truth exists between writer and audience; truth is open to debate; community is the focus - public discourse = how things get solves
B.) Cognitive - psychology-based; composing process = mind + nature interacting; writing teacher steps into the process to help students understand the external world
C.) Epistemic - like Classical and Cognitive, major difference - language + experience are never disjointed; truth doesn't exist in or out - truth occurs when material, social and personal interact 
think: Fulkerson's rhetorical axiology