All,
What I have in mind are a few short theses on the nature of rhetoric and
philosophy. Everything before has been a lot of Rorty and pointer fingers
at how Rorty and Pirsig might be matched up. But now I wish to display
some of the first fruits of my colligation of Rorty and Pirsig.
1. Rhetoric is the art of self-expression. Originally rhetoric meant "the
art of speaking" and then "the art of writing," but these are two modes of
self-expression. There are others, in fact, as many as you can think of
that would express yourself. For instance, dance can be a mode of
self-expression. In dance you are attempting to convey a some sort of
message. Because of this there is a rhetoric of dance (albeit, it might
look a little different than the speaking and writing kind).
2. Rhetoric aims at excellence. (ZMM, Ch 29) To be excellent in rhetoric
is to be excellent in self-expression. "Duty toward self" is the efforts
of self-perfection and excellence in self-expression is self-perfection,
self-realization, self-assertion, self-articulation.
3. Complimenting this is Rorty's description of the self as a centerless
web of beliefs and desires. Rhetoric, being the art of self-expression, the
striving for excellence, is the art of excellence of self. Rhetoric is the
expression of this centerless web and the excellence of rhetoric is the
excellence of the self, the excellence of one's final vocabulary.
4. Also, parallel to this, is Pirsig's claim of rhetoric being the
fountainhead of learning. As self-expression, this finds voicing in
Rorty's appropriation of Sellars' definition of philosophy: "the attempt to
see how things, in the broadest sense of the term, hang together, in the
broadest sense of the term." Rhetoric is philosophy in the sense the
rhetoric aims at excellence of the self and philosophy aims at seeing how
the self hangs together with everything else. Excellence in
self-expression is excellence in philosophy.
5. Finally, and most importantly, is Pirsig's overemphasization of "duty
towards oneself." This narcissism can make one feel as though there's
something missing. Rorty furnishes a good expression of this fear: the
irrevocable split of the private and public realm. The private realm's
"duty towards oneself" is complimented by a ressurected public realm "duty
towards others." Philosophy, here, can then be seen as an attempt to see
how the self hangs together with others.
6. This also splits rhetoric. Rhetoric in the private realm is
self-expression towards self-perfection. Rhetoric in the public realm is
self-expression towards the minimization of cruelty to others (from Rorty's
appropriation of Judith Shklar's definition of a "liberal").
Matt
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