Rhetoric as “a way of knowing”: An attenuation of the epistemological claims of the “new rhetoric”

This essay explores the notion of rhetoric‐as‐epistemic—a theory which has recently gained increasing attention from rhetoricians. The author begins by explicating the nature of the claim that rhetoric is truth‐creative. This is followed by a delineation of the philosophic suppositions anchoring such a contention. Finally, the author sets forth several criteria for determining under what conditions rhetoric may be said to function in epistemologically meaningful ways.