Walter R. Fisher’s research while affiliated with University of Southern California and other places

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Publications (9)


Technical logic, rhetorical logic, and narrative rationality
  • Article

March 1987

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279 Reads

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53 Citations

Argumentation

Walter R. Fisher

This essay traces the historical relationship between technical and rhetorical logics, and explores how the concept of narrative rationality - the logic that attends the narrative paradigm - grows out of and moves beyond prior logics. Argumentation is the theme in the rhetorical tradition that ties rhetoric to logic. That tie, perhaps needless to say, has not been mutual or always productive. My purpose in this essay is to trace this relationship for itself and then to explore how the concept of narrative rationality - the logic that attends the narrative paradigm - grows out of and moves beyond prior logics.' The history of logic is marked by two broad orientations, technical and rhetorical. As "inventor" of logic, Aristotle is "father" to both orientations. The foundation of technical logic is presented in his Categories, On Interpretation, and the 'Prior and Posterior Analytics. The ideas that inform rhetorical logic are contained in his Topics, On Sophistical Refutations, and the Rhetoric. Central to both logics is argument, which Aristotle conceived as a demonstration based on the model of geometry. The classic form of argument for Aristotle was the syllogism: "discourse in which, certain things being stated, something other than what is stated follows of necessity from their being so." 2 Such is the form of this discourse: All men are animals, All animals are mortal, All men are mortal. The geometric expression would be: A = B, C = A, C = B. What is most significant here is that the rules by which analytic syllogisms are judged to be valid, that is, follow necessarily from their premises, are formal. Validity is tested without regard to the characteristics of the entities referred to in the premises. The rules concern the distribution of terms, whether the premises are general or particular, and whether the premises are affirmative or negative. For analytic syllogisms to yield true as well as valid conclusions, their premises must be true. In Aristotle's



The Narrative Paradigm: An Elaboration

December 1985

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1,037 Reads

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464 Citations

This essay situates the narrative paradigm in regard to major social scientific and humanistic theories, and applies the paradigm in an interpretation and assessment of the conversation between Socrates and Callicles in Plato's Gorgias.


Narration as a human communication paradigm: The case of public moral argument

March 1984

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3,297 Reads

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1,598 Citations

This essay proposes a theory of human communication based on a conception of persons as homo narrans. It compares and contrasts this view with the traditional rational perspective on symbolic interaction. The viability of the narrative paradigm and its attendant notions of reason and rationality are demonstrated through an extended analysis of key aspects of the current nuclear war controversy and a brief application to The Epic of Gilgamesh. The narrative paradigm synthesizes two strands in rhetorical theory: the argumentative, persuasive theme and the literary, aesthetic theme.


Kenneth Burke's realism

March 1984

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22 Reads

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6 Citations

Central States Speech Journal

The authors argue that Burke's dramatism and logology are grounded in a variant of philosophical realism. They review relevant statements by Burke, comparing and contrasting his philosophical orientation with those of Plato, Aristotle, George Campbell, and Chaïm Perelman.




Rhetorical fiction and the presidency

April 1980

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15 Reads

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25 Citations

Quarterly Journal of Speech

This essay explores the nature of rhetorical fiction, compares it with poetic and dialectical fictions, relates the concept to cognate terms, and explores the Presidency as an example of how social‐political roles are constituted as rhetorical fictions.


Toward a Logic of Good Reasons

December 1978

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75 Reads

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106 Citations

Quarterly Journal of Speech

This essay explores the assumptions underlying the role of values in rhetorical interactions, the meaning of “logic” in relation to “good reasons,” a reconceptualization of “good reasons,” implementation of a “logic of ‘good reasons’,” and the uses of hierarchies of values in assessing rhetorical reasoning.

Citations (8)


... Our understanding of 'story-weaving' builds not only on Couchie and Miguel (2018) but draws from Fisher's understanding of human beings as 'homo narrans'-or 'essentially storytellers ' (1985: 7). Fisher (1978Fisher ( , 1985, a prominent communication scholar, first introduced the concept of human beings as storytellers through his development of the narrative paradigm. His alternative view of human communication draws on Burke's (1963) understanding of humankind as symbol using animals to argue that humans are storytellers, and decision-making and communication processes are bound to good reasoning (i.e., a good story) rather than logical arguments. ...

Reference:

Story-weaving: homo narrans , popular culture and the role of stories in tourism
Toward a Logic of Good Reasons
  • Citing Article
  • December 1978

Quarterly Journal of Speech

... Hay que tener en cuenta que la presidencia es un cargo y un rol, una institución y una persona. Al mismo tiempo, es una fuerza de persuasión simbólica, una fuente de estímulo a las ideas, la actitud, el valor y la acción; es un lugar dramático, escenario de conflictos (Fisher, 1980). El Presidente, poco después de las siete de la mañana, subió al templete frente a decenas de reporteros y camarógrafos. ...

Rhetorical fiction and the presidency
  • Citing Article
  • April 1980

Quarterly Journal of Speech

... Fisher (1987Fisher ( , 1997, in his Narrative Paradigm theory, regards the principles of coherence and fidelity as the standards for assessing narratives. Humans are essentially storytellers (Fisher, 1985). This constitutes the fundamental philosophical assumption underlying the narrative paradigm. ...

The Narrative Paradigm: An Elaboration
  • Citing Article
  • December 1985

... In an effort to drive home that ST and SL are part and parcel to NPT tests, it is important to note these linguistic devices were explored for their rhetorical value in the academic sphere in the years leading up to Fisher's first NPT publication. Indeed, four years prior to his first NPT article Fisher had addressed the importance of stylistics in discourse analysis by stating that any rhetoric analysis was a category of stylistics (Fisher, 1980). Further, a twentieth century linguistic and discourse scholar described stylistics as "responding to such variables as communicative intention, presupposition, focus, reference, emotional stress and other factors," (de Beaugrande, 1977, 241), clarifying it as a term encompassing NPT's BCCH tests. ...

Genre: Concepts and applications in rhetorical criticism
  • Citing Article
  • December 1980

Western Journal of Speech Communication

... Walter Fisher suggested Reagan had unusual potential to be remembered as a "presidential hero," joining the ranks of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. According to Fisher (1982), such heroes are not just romantic figures, regarded as "adventurous, colorful, daring, and impassioned [advocates] of certain American ideals," they are also "visionary and mythic," evoking "the image of the American Dream" (300). Explaining his heroic qualities, Fisher said that Reagan positioned himself as "manly," tough on America's "military posture," and confident in pledging a "perfected economy"-all while exuding the image of the Western hero (302). ...

Romantic democracy, Ronald Reagan, and presidential heroes
  • Citing Article
  • December 1982

Western Journal of Speech Communication

... The persuasion can also be seen through a descriptive lens known as Narrative paradigm (Fisher, 1984) where influence is not considered that much as a rational method. It is an emotional procedure based on storytelling and particularly, it does not ignore logic (Fisher, 1987). Baldwin (2011) reported that there is an essential relationship between narrative and rhetorical elements. ...

Technical logic, rhetorical logic, and narrative rationality
  • Citing Article
  • March 1987

Argumentation