Adaptive Rhetoric

Rhetorical scholarship has for decades relied solely on culture to explain persuasive behavior. While this focus allows for deep explorations of historical circumstance, it neglects the powerful effects of biology on rhetorical behavior - how our bodies and brains help shape and constrain rhetorical acts. By introducing evolutionary biology into the study of rhetoric, this book serves as a model of a biocultural paradigm. This cross-species study of rhetoric allows us to trace the origins of our own persuasive behaviors, providing us with a deeper history of rhetoric that transcends the written and the televised, and reveals the artifacts of our communicative past.

Alex C. Parrish is Assistant Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication at James Madison University, USA.

Introduction Part I 1. Classical Naturalism 2. Nature, Nurture, and Negativity: Wilson's Consilience and the Art of Rhetoric 3. Is it Adaptive? Is it Rhetoric? Part II 4. Animal Signaling and the Art of Persuasion 5. Deception, Mimicry, and Camoflage 6. Rhetoric and Theory of Mind 7. Evolutionary Memoria: Grounded Cognition and the Fourth Canon Conclusion: The Significance of an Interdisciplinary Approach