For the Sake of Argument: Practical Reasoning, Character, and the Ethics of Belief

Extract

For the Sake of Argument: Practical Reasoning, Character, and the Ethics of Belief. By Eugene Garver. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004. 264p. $55.00 cloth, $22.50 paper.

Does reason advance democratic values, or is it a manifestation of the will to power, used by elites to justify coercion? Eugene Garver seeks a middle way through this question by claiming that certain uses of reason oppress, but others do not. Practical reason can build democratic community, but only if it is carefully delineated from manipulative sophistry and an excessively theoretical reason that seeks logical rigor to the detriment of decent practices. Garver makes rhetoric a central case of practical reason to argue his point. This is understandable, given his previous work on Aristotelian rhetoric and the history of prudence.