Fallacies and Free Speech: Selected Discourses in Early America

Rudanko, Juhani

This book offers a new perspective on selected discourses and texts bearing on the evolution of a distinctively American tradition of free speech. The author’s approach privileges fallacy theory, especially the fallacy of ad socordiam, in a key Congressional debate in 1789 and other forms of verbal manipulation in newspaper editorials during the War of 1812. He argues that in order to understand James Madison’s role in the evolution of a broad conception of freedom of speech, it is imperative to examine the nature of the verbal attacks targeted at him. These attacks are documented, analyzed with the concept of aggravated impoliteness, and used to demonstrate that it was Madison’s toleration of criticism, even in wartime, that provided a foundation for a broad conception of freedom of speech. This book will be of interest to both scholars and lay readers with an interest in the application of discourse analysis and historical pragmatics to political debates, argumentation theoryand fallacy theory, and the evolution of the concept of freedom of speech in the early years of the United States.

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2021-04-02

Format: Hardcover

ISBN-13: 9783030678760

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-67877-7

Dimensions: 210cm x148cm

Pages: 134