Rhetorical Figures in Science

Rating:
Summary: Best new book on science and rhetoric; a classic in waiting
Review: "Once and for all," Jeanne Fahnestock argues in her soon-to-be-a-classic book, "the figures should come out of the cabinet of curiosities" (23). If the diligent, imaginative, bracing scholarship of Rhetorical figures in science does not accomplish that goal, then I'm a monkey's uncle: this book is a masterwork: easily the most important book in rhetoric of science over the last decade: among the most important books in rhetoric-period over at least the same stretch: the foremost contribution to figuration since I don't know when, maybe since Peacham: a study no one in the field of rhetoric can afford to do without: get it.

Rhetorical figures in science is a book with many virtues: a compelling case for figures as arguments; a superb history of figuration, which brings it into revealing alignment with topoi and enthymemes; a series of excellent to stunning critical readings; and one of the most astute and lucid readings of Aristotle's corpus in years