John Dewey's Eloquent Citizen: Communication, Judgment, and Postmodern Capitalism

Dewey offers rhetorical studies a philosophical modernization of the eloquent citizen. In so doing, an aesthetic-moral theory of communication emerges at the core of human subjectivity. Two consequences are highlighted: First, rhetorical studies is able to re-define itself as a liberal arm of the ethical state normalizing the communicative behaviors of citizens and second, communication is transformed into a moral imperative evacuating the history of communication as a technology of self To better account for the role of communication in postmodern capitalism, rhetorical studies needs an aesthetic-economic theory of communication.