Download or read book Rhetoric and Civility written by Harold Barrett and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1991-01-22 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book relates the concept of civility to rhetorical disposition, and incivility to indisposition. The author discusses classical rhetorical theory and interprets it for use in all interactions, exploring origins in infancy of the rhetorical disposition and the rhetorical indisposition. He provides four case-study chapters of the lives of individuals illustrating unhealthy narcissism and rhetorical failure — Jim Jones, Joseph McCarthy, Paul Morel, and Tiberius Gracchus. These cases illustrate how unfavorable narcissism can give adverse direction to the rhetorical imperative and lead to problems in relationships. Barrett offers a rhetorical corrective.

Download or read book Beyond Civility written by William Keith and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2020-06-03 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the pundits to the polls, nearly everyone seems to agree that US politics have rarely been more fractious, and calls for a return to “civil discourse” abound. Yet it is also true that the requirements of polite discourse effectively silence those who are not in power, gaming the system against the disenfranchised. What, then, should a democracy do? This book makes a case for understanding civility in a different light. Examining the history of the concept and its basis in communication and political theory, William Keith and Robert Danisch present a clear, robust analysis of civil discourse. Distinguishing it from politeness, they claim that civil argument must be redirected from the goal of political comity to that of building and maintaining relationships of minimal respect in the public sphere. They also take into account how civility enables discrimination, indicating conditions under which uncivil resistance is called for. When viewed as a communication practice for uniting people with differences and making them more equal, civility is transformed from a preferable way of speaking into an essential component of democratic life. Guarding against uncritical endorsement of civility as well as skepticism, Keith and Danisch show with rigor, nuance, and care that the practice of civil communication is both paradoxical and sorely needed. Beyond Civility is necessary reading for our times.

Download or read book A Republican Theory of Free Speech written by Suzanne Whitten and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-10-22 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers the first comprehensive philosophical examination of the free speech ‘battles’ of the last decade, arguing for a critical republican conception of civility as an explanatory and prescriptive solution. Issues such as no-platforming and safe spaces, the increasing influence of Far-Right rhetoric on internet forums, the role of Twitter as a site of activist struggles, and the moral panics that surround ill-judged comments made by public figures, all provide a new set of challenges for society which demand a careful critical analysis. The author proposes a 'republican theory' of free speech, demonstrating how a conception of ‘critical’ civility, one which combines the importance of expressive respect with the responsibilities of contestation and vigilance, is required if we are to combat some of the most contentious speech-related conflicts facing contemporary society today.

Download or read book The Case for Civility written by Os Guinness and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2008-01-22 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a world torn apart by religious extremism on the one side and a strident secularism on the other, no question is more urgent than how we live with our deepest differences—especially our religious and ideological differences. The Case for Civility is a proposal for restoring civility in America as a way to foster civility around the world. Influential Christian writer and speaker Os Guinness makes a passionate plea to put an end to the polarization of American politics and culture that—rather than creating a public space for real debate—threatens to reverse the very principles our founders set into motion and that have long preserved liberty, diversity, and unity in this country. Guinness takes on the contemporary threat of the excesses of the Religious Right and the secular Left, arguing that we must find a middle ground between privileging one religion over another and attempting to make all public expression of faith illegal. If we do not do this, Guinness contends, Western civilization as we know it will die. Always provocative and deeply insightful, Guinness puts forth a vision of a new, practical "civil and cosmopolitan public square" that speaks not only to America's immediate concerns but to the long-term interests of the republic and the world.

Download or read book Rude Democracy written by Susan Herbst and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-20 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How American politics can become more civil and amenable to public policy solutions, while still allowing for effective argument.

Download or read book Against Civility written by Alex Zamalin and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first history of racial injustice to examine how civility and white supremacy are linked, and a call for citizens who care about social justice to abandon civility and practice civic radicalism The idea and practice of civility has always been wielded to silence dissent, repress political participation, and justify violence upon people of color. Although many progressives today are told that we need to be more polite and thoughtful, less rancorous and angry, when we talk about race in America, civility maintains rather than disrupts racial injustice. Spanning two hundred years, Zamalin’s accessible blend of intellectual history, political biography, and contemporary political criticism shows that civility has never been neutral in its political uses and impacts. The best way to tackle racial inequality is through “civic radicalism,” an alternative to civility found in the actions of Black radical leaders including Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, Malcolm X, and Audre Lorde. Civic radicals shock and provoke people. They name injustice and who is responsible for it. They protest, march, strike, boycott, and mobilize collectively rather than form alliances with those who fundamentally oppose them. In Against Civility, citizens who care deeply about racial and socioeconomic equality will see that they need to abandon this concept of discreet politeness when it comes to racial justice and instead more fully support disruptive actions and calls for liberation, which have already begun with movements like #MeToo, the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, and Black Lives Matter.

Download or read book Civility Free Speech and Academic Freedom in Higher Education written by Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-05-16 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Civility, Free Speech, and Academic Freedom in Higher Education: Faculty on the Margins represents a multidisciplinary approach, deploying different theoretical, methodological, sociological, political, and creative perspectives to articulate the stakes of civility for marginalized faculty within the landscape of higher education. How has the discourse on civility and free speech within academia become a systemic and oppressive form of silencing, suppressing, or eradicating marginal voices? What are some overt and covert ways in which institutions are using the logic of civility to control faculty uprising against the increasingly corporate-controlled landscape of higher education? This collection of essays examines the continuum between the post-9/11 and the post-Trump era backlashes. It details the organized retaliations against those in academia whose views and scholarships articulate their discontents against the U.S.-led "War on Terror." It contests the rise of White supremacy, Trump’s Muslim ban, anti-immigrant and racist government policies and rhetoric, and those who support the Boycott and Divestment Sanctions movements within the corporatized universities. All of these new and original essays shed light and further the debate on the various modes of civility that have become politicized within the U.S. academy. It will have a broad appeal to a cross section of national and international academics, activist scholars, social justice educators and researchers in the field of higher education.

Download or read book Mere Civility written by Teresa M. Bejan and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-02 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In liberal democracies committed to tolerating diversity as well as disagreement, the loss of civility in the public sphere seems critical. But is civility really a virtue, or a demand for conformity that silences dissent? Teresa Bejan looks at early modern debates about religious toleration for answers about what a civil society should look like.

Download or read book Unruly Rhetorics written by Jonathan Alexander and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2018-10-26 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What forces bring ordinary people together in public to make their voices heard? What means do they use to break through impediments to democratic participation? Unruly Rhetorics is a collection of essays from scholars in rhetoric, communication, and writing studies inquiring into conditions for activism, political protest, and public assembly. An introduction drawing on Jacques Rancière and Judith Butler explores the conditions under which civil discourse cannot adequately redress suffering or injustice. The essays offer analyses of “unruliness” in case studies from both twenty-first-century and historical sites of social-justice protest. The collection concludes with an afterword highlighting and inviting further exploration of the ethical, political, and pedagogical questions unruly rhetorics raise. Examining multiple modes of expression – embodied, print, digital, and sonic – Unruly Rhetorics points to the possibility that unruliness, more than just one of many rhetorical strategies within political activity, is constitutive of the political itself.

Download or read book A Crisis of Civility written by Robert G. Boatright and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-02-18 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The state of political discourse in the United States today has been a subject of concern for many Americans. Political incivility is not merely a problem for political elites; political conversations between American citizens have also become more difficult and tense. The 2016 presidential elections featured campaign rhetoric designed to inflame the general public. Yet the 2016 election was certainly not the only cause of incivility among citizens. There have been many instances in recent years where reasoned discourse in our universities and other public venues has been threatened. This book was undertaken as a response to these problems. It presents and develops a more robust discussion of what civility is, why it matters, what factors might contribute to it, and what its consequences are for democratic life. The authors included here pursue three major questions: Is the state of American political discourse today really that bad, compared to prior eras; what lessons about civility can we draw from the 2016 election; and how have changes in technology such as the development of online news and other means of mediated communication changed the nature of our discourse? This book seeks to develop a coherent, civil conversation between divergent contemporary perspectives in political science, communications, history, sociology, and philosophy. This multidisciplinary approach helps to reflect on challenges to civil discourse, define civility, and identify its consequences for democratic life in a digital age. In this accessible text, an all-star cast of contributors tills the earth in which future discussion on civility will be planted.

Download or read book Silence Civility and Sanity written by Stephanie Anne Bennett and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-02-21 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Silence, Civility, and Sanity focuses on the importance of silence to temper speech and embrace the art of listening in order to foster a more positive dialogue and civil society in a divided nation.

Download or read book In Defense of Civility written by James Calvin Davis and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2010-09-21 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From "the big four" (abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, and stem-cell research) to war, poverty, and the environment, this timely book considers religion's impact on moral debates in America's past and present. James Calvin Davis argues for religion's potential to enrich both the content and the civility of public conversation. This book will interest all concerned citizens yearning for more careful thinking about the role of religion in public debate.

Download or read book Leviathan and the Air Pump written by Steven Shapin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2011-08-15 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leviathan and the Air-Pump examines the conflicts over the value and propriety of experimental methods between two major seventeenth-century thinkers: Thomas Hobbes, author of the political treatise Leviathan and vehement critic of systematic experimentation in natural philosophy, and Robert Boyle, mechanical philosopher and owner of the newly invented air-pump. The issues at stake in their disputes ranged from the physical integrity of the air-pump to the intellectual integrity of the knowledge it might yield. Both Boyle and Hobbes were looking for ways of establishing knowledge that did not decay into ad hominem attacks and political division. Boyle proposed the experiment as cure. He argued that facts should be manufactured by machines like the air-pump so that gentlemen could witness the experiments and produce knowledge that everyone agreed on. Hobbes, by contrast, looked for natural law and viewed experiments as the artificial, unreliable products of an exclusive guild. The new approaches taken in Leviathan and the Air-Pump have been enormously influential on historical studies of science. Shapin and Schaffer found a moment of scientific revolution and showed how key scientific givens--facts, interpretations, experiment, truth--were fundamental to a new political order. Shapin and Schaffer were also innovative in their ethnographic approach. Attempting to understand the work habits, rituals, and social structures of a remote, unfamiliar group, they argued that politics were tied up in what scientists did, rather than what they said. Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer use the confrontation between Hobbes and Boyle as a way of understanding what was at stake in the early history of scientific experimentation. They describe the protagonists' divergent views of natural knowledge, and situate the Hobbes-Boyle disputes within contemporary debates over the role of intellectuals in public life and the problems of social order and assent in Restoration England. In a new introduction, the authors describe how science and its social context were understood when this book was first published, and how the study of the history of science has changed since then.

Download or read book Prophetic Tradition and Radical Rhetoric in America written by James Darsey and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1999-09 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This expansive volume traces the rhetoric of reform across American history, examining such pivotal periods as the American Revolution, slavery, McCarthyism, and today's gay liberation movement. At a time when social movements led by religious leaders, from Louis Farrakhan to Pat Buchanan, are playing a central role in American politics, James Darsey connects this radical tradition with its prophetic roots. Public discourse in the West is derived from the Greek principles of civility, diplomacy, compromise, and negotiation. On this model, radical speech is often taken to be a sympton of social disorder. Not so, contends Darsey, who argues that the rhetoric of reform in America represents the continuation of a tradition separate from the commonly accepted principles of the Greeks. Though the links have gone unrecognized, the American radical tradition stems not from Aristotle, he maintains, but from the prophets of the Hebrew Bible.

Download or read book Women Bishops and Rhetorics of Shalom written by Leland G. Spencer and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-04-26 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women Bishops and Rhetorics of Shalom: A Whole Peace argues that the theological concept of shalom offers a way forward for progressive Christians who want to advocate for social justice based on their faith in an increasingly globalizing world characterized by many faiths. To do so, the book considers the rhetorical leadership of three women bishops who are all “firsts” in important ways: Marjorie Matthews, the first woman bishop in any mainline Post-Reformation church, Leontine Kelly, the first woman bishop of color in any mainline church, and Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to lead a national church in the Anglican Communion. This book is recommended for scholars interested in communications, religious studies, and gender studies.

Download or read book Televised Presidential Debates in a Changing Media Environment written by Edward A. Hinck and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-11-26 with total page 723 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This two-volume set examines recent presidential and vice presidential debates, addresses how citizens make sense of these events in new media, and considers whether the evolution of these forms of consumption is healthy for future presidential campaigns—and for democracy. The presidential debates of 2016 underscored how television highlights candidates' and campaigns' messages, which provide fodder for citizens' widespread use of new media to "talk back" to campaigns and other citizens. Social media will continue to affect the way that campaign events like presidential debates are consumed by audiences and how they shape campaign outcomes. This two-volume study is one of the first to examine the relationship between debates as televised events and events consumed by citizens through social media. It also assesses the town hall debate format from 1992 to 2016, uses the lens of civil dialogue to consider how citizens watch the debates, and considers the growing impact of new media commentary on candidate images that emerge in presidential and vice presidential debates. Televised Presidential Debates in a Changing Media Environment features contributions from leading political communication scholars that illuminate how presidential debates are transforming from events that are privately contemplated by citizens, to events that are increasingly viewed and discussed by citizens through social media. The first volume focuses on traditional studies of debates as televised campaign events, and the second volume examines the changing audiences for debates as they become consumed and discussed by viewers outside the traditional channels of newspapers, cable news channels, and campaign messaging. Readers will contemplate questions of new forms, problems, and possibilities of political engagement that are resulting from citizens producing and consuming political messages in new media.

Download or read book Venomous Speech written by Clarke Rountree and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-04-30 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is much of the current dysfunction in our political system attributable to the problematic discourse of politicians, pundits, and journalists? These authors on legal and political discourse say yes. This book contains essays by some of the best scholars of political communication that examine modern-day American political discourse. The contributors address what is problematic in our political discourse and what has resulted in unprecedented levels of gridlock, discord, and hostility, covering everything from the incivility of Congress to the spectacle of celebrity politicians... the arrogance of Republican and Democratic presidents to the difficulties of grassroots groups hoping to change the status quo... and the partisan shaping of news coverage to the growing influence of political comedians. This work provides a frank, hard-nosed look at what needs fixing, offers a critical lens from knowledgeable writers to help those frustrated with our political system to better understand why our discourse is so troubled, and lays out suggestions for reclaiming the commonwealth. Anyone interested in politics, government, or communication will benefit from learning how recent developments have created a "perfect storm" that is troubling the waters of our democracy.