Crosswhite - Introduction; Chapter 1

In James Crosswhite's book, The Rhetoric of Reason, he begins with an attempt to reconcile rhetoric with postmodernism.   A large portion of postmodern philosophies focus on the limitations of language and its inherent inability to arrive at any ultimate truth.  Hence, this inability has given rise to infamous phrase: the end of philosophy.  Although some interpret postmodernism as depressing given its stance on absolute truth, others find it freeing.  However, linguistic philosophers from Wittgenstein to Derrida acknowledge the ability of language to increase one's knowledge and understanding; in other words, although we cannot achieve an ultimate truth, we can achieve some semblance of it.  Crosswhite reframes the subject of rhetoric into the background of postmodernism.  He addresses those who believe that we should give up any attempt at obtaining truth through language.  He also addresses skeptics who refuse to acknowledge the findings of postmodernism; on page 30, he imagines a scenario where a philosopher quibbles over whether a couple is married or not.  This points to the heart of philosophy: is philosophy helpful in a practical, ordinary sense?  Crosswhite's answer would be yes: though rhetoric.  Rhetoric is where philosophy and the ordinary converge according to Crosswhite.  Argumentation is at the heart of both philosophy and real-world experiences, and it is with argumentation that Crosswhite lays the foundation for the rest of his book.