BEYOND DUALISM: THE HERMENEUTIC MEDIUM AS A COMMUNICATION-BASED PERSPECTIVE ON THE CARTESIAN PROBLEM IN EPISTEMIC RHETORIC (OBJECTIVISM, RELATIVISM, CRITICISM)

JEFFERY LINN BINEHAM, Purdue University

Abstract

The Cartesian dualist paradigm posts a gap between the subjective mind and those objective elements external to it. This paradigm has led inexorably toward what Bernstein calls the "Cartesian Anxiety": the assumption that either some ultimate foundation exists against which knowledge and action can be judged, or skepticism is inevitable and we will be enveloped by a moral and intellectual chaos that will render us unable to critique alternative positions. This Cartesian influence pervades Western thought and action, and is present in communication studies and, more particularly, in the epistemic rhetoric literature. This dissertation views Cartesian dualism as a distinct problem in the epistemic rhetoric literature, and adapts Gadamer's motion of a hermeneutic "medium" so that it can function as a communication-based alternative to the Cartesian dualist paradigm. The dissertation seeks not to solve the problems of Cartesian dualism, but to obviate or work around them. The goal is to offer a perspective which evades the Cartesian agenda and the issues that agenda has established as important. To accomplish this task the dissertation (1) identifies the central problems and issues in the epistemic rhetoric literature that are fostered by Cartesian dualism; (2) explains how the concept of a hermeneutic medium can provide a communication-based alternative to the Cartesian framework; (3) explains how this concept of the medium can help obviate problems of Cartesian dualism in epistemic rhetoric; and (4) details some implications of this concept for the ways in which scholars of epistemic rhetoric think about and critique various modes of discourse. The dissertation argues, finally, that the concept of the medium highlights the importance of the practical public argument that gives people voice in the creation and management of their worlds.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Communication

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