ADAPTIVE RHETORIC: EVOLUTION, CULTURE, AND THE ART OF PERSUASION

Thesis (Ph.D.), Department of English, Washington State UniversityThis work presents a case for the biocultural study of rhetoric. Following in the tradition of E.O.Wilson's `consilient' program of research into evolution and the arts, I combine the study of biology and culture to create a more complete view of rhetorical theory and practice. This approach entails two related ideas. First, that the human brain evolved to meet the environmental challenges it faced during its period of greatest expansion - the Pleistocene epoch, when it tripled in size. Language, culture, art (including the art of persuasion) are behaviors that help us adapt to our needs as social animals, and must be considered when studying rhetorical practice. A biocultural view emphasizes both specific historical practices shaped by culture and the constraints our physical bodies place on us as rhetors. The second idea a biocultural approach entails is that animal rhetorics should be viewed as analogues or even evolutionary precursors to certain human persuasive activities, allowing us to gather information about the origins of these activities. A naturalistic view of rhetoric is not alien to the discipline. It has merely been neglected in recent decades. Classical rhetoric provides many examples of naturalistic inquiry and inklings of what today is called a biocultural approach. Even some modern rhetoricians, like Kenneth Burke and George Kennedy, have based their views of rhetoric on knowledge gained from evolutionary biology. It is thus important to reconcile rhetorical theory with current work in the life sciences. I argue that animal signaling theory is a useful starting point, and that the art of persuasion is a special type of animal signaling. Human rhetorics are heavily dependent on our ability to attribute feelings and beliefs to others, what evolutionary psychologists call our theory of mind. The final chapter of this work applies key concepts from evolutionary psychology to the rhetorical canon memoria, in order to demonstrate the utility of this biocultural approach to rhetorical theory. This offers us a more complete picture of rhetoric as a set of behaviors guided by both nature and nurture, allowing us to see beyond what is often presented as a rigid dichotomy.Department of English, Washington State Universit