• Technique, technology, transcendence : machination and amechanica in Burke, Nietzsche, and Parmenides
    In Chris Mays, Nathaniel A. Rivers & Kellie Sharp-Hoskins (eds.), Kenneth Burke + the posthuman, The Pennsylvania State University Press. 2017.
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    Parmenides, Ontological Enaction, and the Prehistory of Rhetoric
    Philosophy and Rhetoric 47 (4): 472-493. 2014.
    For the Greeks, O King, who make logical demonstrations, use words emptied of power, and this very activity is what constitutes their philosophy, a mere noise of words. But we [Egyptians] do not use words [logoi] but sounds [phōnai] which are full of effects.If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it.The Eleatic thinker Zeno was a friend, perhaps adopted son, and student of Parmenides. He is famous for his many paradoxes on space and motion, such as Achilles and the…Read more
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    Making Movies with Song: Movement, Style, and the Invitations of Music
    Philosophy and Rhetoric 54 (1): 28-44. 2021.
    ABSTRACT This essay responds to Alva Noë's arguments that popular musics organize listeners through style and personality, while other musics, such as classical and jazz, organize listeners on the music itself. Noë's arguments suggest that music is an existential phenomenon, and thus that music is ontological. There is much to like here, including the idea that musics can be existentially different. However, the work of pop musics cannot be confined solely to stylistics and personality; pop also…Read more
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    It Is All There: From Reason to Reasoning-in-the-World
    Philosophy and Rhetoric 52 (1): 93-101. 2019.
    Argument and its performance as debate are ambient phenomena. It takes a world to have an argument, and as the world changes, so will the ways and means of argument. The current narratives circulating about post-truth, truthiness, alternative facts, and the like, while illuminating somewhat different registers, gloss this point. Collectively, they seem to assert that truth's sway in public discourse has lessened, threatening the possibility of robust civic discourse and politics. I am leery of s…Read more
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    Toward the
    Philosophy and Rhetoric 40 (3). 2007.
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    Why are today's students not realizing their potential as critical thinkers? Although educators have, for two decades, incorporated contemporary cultural studies into the teaching of composition and rhetoric, many students lack the powers of self-expression that are crucial for effecting social change. _Acts of Enjoyment_ presents a critique of current pedagogies and introduces a psychoanalytical approach in teaching composition and rhetoric. Thomas Rickert builds upon the advances of cultural s…Read more