On Weaver…

At first glance, Weaver’s approach to rhetoric seems to be highly psychological and philosophical. He focuses on the human being and its levels of division—body, mind, and soul—that allow for rational exploration and conception of truth. Weaver went on to describe three levels of knowledge that branched off from “rational capacity.” He assimilates ideas, beliefs, and metaphysical dreams into distinct sublevels of knowledge or “conscious reflection.” His ideas of truth are said to follow Plato’s references to the material world being but a mere reflection of the ideal world. It is through a process of reasoning that humans are able to order their world and make it more meaningful.

For Weaver, language acts as a conveyance for truth. Dialectic and rhetoric, though “imperfect vehicles,” allow truth to be revealed through language. Weaver seems advocates the idea that “dialectic is the means for attaining knowledge of universals and essences… ‘a method of investigation whose object is the establishment of truth about doubtful propositions’” (163). Weaver thought that rhetoric offered something more than mere scientific observation or display; it directly relates to the world or a particular audience. It involves real decisions, real circumstances, and real ideals.

I found the chapter on Weaver significantly more interesting than the others. So the reading was done a little less begrudgingly. Though I’m not sure how much weight his arguments hold with other rhetoricians, his ideas make for good argument.