The Aesthetics of Public Argument: Reconceptualizing the Form and Function of Argument Fields within the Public Forum

• In Event: Rhetorical Models of Democracy

Abstract

This paper re-theorizes Stephen Toulmin’s concept of the ‘argument field’ in an effort to elucidate the concept of public argumentation. From this theoretical perspective, public argument is conceived as a process whose dynamics are essentially aesthetic, rather than rational and deliberative. A fresh understanding of argument fields provides a conceptual tool for identifying, interpreting, and explaining the fluid processes of recognition and meaning-making under modern conditions of public life.

Author

• Jamie Merchant, Northwestern University