Abstract

The aim of this study is to show that conceiving of ethical choice as a rhetorical process provides the beginning of a foundation for ethics that addresses many postmodern objections to the very idea of ethical foundations. These objections center around the modernist assumption that one may make good ethical choices from a reference point transcendent to a particular relationship one has with another. This assumption ignores how conceptual understanding and the ethical agent herself is constructed through language in relationship. ;In this dissertation, postmodern critiques of modernist conceptions of the ethical autonomy of the individual self, the relationship of self and other, and the nature of language and representation are addressed and incorporated. The ethics of several contemporary theories of rhetoric such as Wayne Booth, Kenneth Burke, and Chaim Perelman are explored and used. Philosophers who speak directly or indirectly to rhetoric from an ethical point of view such as Paul Ricoeur and Ernesto Grassi are also included. The philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas is central. Levinas claims that the self's very relationship with another is ethical and that such an ethical praxis begins with the use of language. This perspective makes his thought particularly appropriate to augment rhetorical theory. ;The conclusion is that a rhetorical approach to ethics that puts the needs of others at its center can transcend the false dichotomy of self and other, autonomy and dependence, universal and particular, absolutism and relativism. Such an orientation to others can act as a foundation for ethical choice that is universal while remaining responsive to particular situations