Toward a humanistic approach to rhetoric: the School of Brussels today

• Wed, 06/06/2012 - 3:00pm

Victor Ferry

Research Group in Rhetoric and Argumentation in Linguistics

Université Libre de Bruxelles

In this talk, I will discuss the theoretical background of our research team. This background has to do with a humanist tradition of thought (from Aristotle to Perelman and today) that is sometimes referred to as « the school of Brussels ».

In practice, such a theoretical approach leads us to:

• develop our understanding of rhetoric thanks to the current state of knowledge in disciplines such as linguistics, law, anthropology, psychology, cognitive and neurosciences.
• trying to investigate the links between the technical nature of rhetoric (i.e. rhetoric as a techné) and the functioning of institutions in today’s societies.

I will then illustrate this theoretical background by describing two of our ongoing projects:

• The valorisation of Perelman archival funds.
• The colloquium "Functions and Uses of Rhetoric" to be held in May 2013.

All are welcome.