Rhetorical Structures, Deliberative Ecologies, and the Conditions for Democratic Argumentation
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Rhetorical Structures, Deliberative Ecologies, and the Conditions for Democratic Argumentation Robert Danisch1
© Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract John Dewey’s belief in democratic deliberation rested on a “faith in the capacity of human beings for intelligent judgment and action if proper conditions are fur‑ nished” (Later Works 227). The stipulation of “proper conditions” is an essential feature, then, of participatory democracy, and Dewey spent considerable time con‑ cerned with these conditions, especially in The Public and Its Problems. This essay argues that the structures and ecologies within which we live make certain kinds of argumentation possible or likely, and that when we alter those structures we alter the possibilities for argumentation. Democratic forms of argumentation are made pos‑ sible by structures that promote collaborative communication practices. This means that practical, public argument is not just a matter of making valid claims, but also a matter of effective contexts that can improve the quality of argumentation. Keywords Democratic deliberation · Rhetorical structures · Agency · Ecology · Public argument Democracy, as a way of life and not just a system of government, is sustained, revi‑ talized, improved, and sometimes even rescued by effective deliberation and argu‑ mentation.1 Such a premise may lead us to presume that the practices of deliberation and argumentation we use are essential for the processes of sustaining, revitalizing, improving, and rescuing. This is undoubtedly true, and the ability to reason well with others (as a practice of communicative action) ought to be a central consideration for 1 In this essay, I define the word "democracy" (from a Deweyan perspective) as both a method of con‑ ducting government and making laws by means of popular suffrage and elected officials and the broad participation of all people in egalitarian relationships and communication that help in the formation of the values we use to regulate our lives together. Democracy as a way of life indicates the importance of quality relationships between strangers.
* Robert Danisch [email protected] http://www.rdanisch.com 1
Department of Communication Arts (ML‑236B), University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
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those interested in promoting democracy as a way of life (as well as those interested in the effective functioning of democratic systems of government). But the structures that we inhabit as communicative agents play a vital role in conditioning, or making possible, certain forms of agency or argumentation practice while marginal‑ izing and devaluing other communication practices. John Dewey, as a champion of participatory, deliberative democracy and a student of human ecology and systems theory, was acutely aware of this: “Democracy is a way of personal life controlled not merely by faith in human nature in general but by faith in the capacity of human beings for intelligent judgment and action if proper conditions are furnished” (1988, p. 227).
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