"Those of us charting historical maps know tat we cannot tell the "truth," that no one map can ever tell the truth, that or traditional foundations are shaky, that maps are neither stable nor coherent, and that the notion of capturing any "reality" rings of empiricism, positivism, and naivete." (289)
I thought it was oddly refreshing being able to connect the dots between all of the rhetoricians we have read about and their constant vying for the "truth," regardless of what that means to them. The idea of a modern scholar looking back into the works of these rhetoricians, who were in the search for the truth, while also on their own search for the truth behind the history and erasure of women rhetoricians is such a meta concept. Seems like everyone shares a want for the truth, all kinds of it.
Seeing as the idea of a "truth" coming up so often in the readings, do you think that "truth" is based on contextual settings or absolutism? Is truth something that will never be reached, regardless of what is brought up in rhetor due to its subjective nature, or do you find that truth CAN be ultimately objective?
great question! I personally believe that all truth isn't objective. people have personal truths that only other people who relate to them could see as true. who are we to tell someone that something that they believe in isn't true because others do not believe it. so for me its really 50/50.
ReplyDeleteWhile ill do believe that there is a complete truth out there to be found, truth in rhetoric history is definitely subjective. This is why her concept of discovering different angles is so important. The more we question history of rhetoric that we have, and look to find the voices of those that were erased (in this case women in rhetoric) the more pieces of the puzzle we can put together, and the closer we will be in discovering the real "truth.
ReplyDeleteThe only real objective truth is that we are all bound to a life of subjectivity. The only real history, for that matter, is our forever struggle to define this Truth. I believe, however, that through uniting all of our subjective realities we can begin to agree on the compound nature of reality which naturally bleeds onto our conceptualization of history.
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