Thomas Aquinas on Persuasion: Action, Ends, and Natural Rhetoric

(Paperback)

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This analysis of the human need to persuade offers a new, creative, application of Aristotelian essentialism to human discourse. Using Thomas Aquinass adaptation of essentialism as a starting point, Jeffrey J. Maciejewski argues that persuasion is natural to human beings and that it possesses dispositional properties that bring about stages of human action that ultimately harmonize the operations of the mind in addition to harmonizing human relationships. Aquinass philosophy of human nature is reviewed and re-examined in order to discover why it is that humans need to persuade themselves and each other. The book should be of considerable interest to scholars of human nature, Thomist philosophy, and those interested in the history of rhetoric and rhetorical theory.

Reviews

The book is very good, and I learned a great deal about both Thomas and rhetoric.... Thomas Aquinas on Persuasion addresses originally, intelligently and lucidly a fundamental question within Thomistic psychology and linguistics from a rhetorical perspective: What is moving us to move ourselves and others through reason toward the flourishing life * American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly *
This book is truly groundbreaking, insofar as nothing on the interface of natural law and rhetoric has been published in recent decades. Professor Maciejewski works comfortably with abstract principles in ethical theory, and analyzes their multiple relevant applications in the 'real world.' His analysis is unique in showing the ethical implications of the natural law of human sociality to the art/science of rhetoric. -- Howard P. Kainz, Marquette University
Professor Maciejewski offers a concise treatment of rhetoric as a natural and distinctively human capacity directed toward the good of working discursively with others to accomplish the human telos of living a shared humanity. The social nature of human beings defines rhetorics work on behalf of the good of living harmoniously in society, a defining element of human flourishing. Richly textured with scholarly references and practical examples, this volume integrates Aristotle, Aquinas, virtue ethics, and contemporary rhetorical theory to render an insightful and engaging treatment of the operation of rhetoric as internal self-persuasion and persuasion directed outwardly toward others to motivate virtuous human action. -- Janie Harden Fritz, Duquesne University; author of Professional Civility: Communicative Virtue at Work

Author Bio

Jeffrey J. Maciejewski is associate professor in the Department of Journalism, Media and Computing at Creighton University.