From Lee Hall, with Love

As an architecture major I was pleased with the title of Leff’s article, The Habitation of Rhetoric; he brought to my mind the idea of a homeless wanderer who cannot find a place (not just a space, as we archies like to clarify) of his own. There is a difference, as Leff describes; the space for rhetoric had been, for a long time, one of some secondhand form of expression, that is, there was nothing to prove “a rhetorical product in the generic sense that poem designates a poetic product” (57). With no use, then, naturally rhetoric as an art was not taken very seriously. Leff argues that the place for rhetoric is not the same as it is for poetry, or for other means of communicating for that matter; rhetoric is different in that “rhetorical discourses [are] substantive in themselves” (58). Scott agrees with Leff in that rhetoric is important, and that it is distinguished from other forms of communication – but he goes so far as to say that “rhetoric may be viewed not as a matter of giving effectiveness to truth, but of creating truth” (135). The act of speaking creates experience, then knowledge, then contingent truth.

The story in Leff’s article, of course, and his general style of writing was useful in helping me to understand what he was saying; Scott was more complicated and I could tell he’d read his Derrida. Ultimately, however, once Scott’s article was waded through his ideas seemed more relevant to me (at this point in time) than Leff’s, because now rhetoric is a part of the curriculum at most universities, and Leff’s purpose for writing was largely to defend the case of rhetoric. Scott raises the big questions, tackling the concept of universal truth, grappling at it just as the ancients did, but knowing that if they’re right he is grappling at uncertainty anyway. And today, when the nations of the world are undergoing globalization these questions are intrinsic – how does a world with differing ideas of truth operate together peacefully? If everyone can agree that there is no certainty, no universal truth that will not change, then perhaps there will be peace. That time will be long in coming, however, and the same question (is there anything all humans can be certain of?) will arise over and over, only in ever-changing forms.