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Reviewer Frederik Appel Olsen takes issue with the approach we present in The Virtues of Green Marketing: A Constructive Take on Corporate Rhetoric (Palgrave Macmillan). In this response, we point out three aspects where Appel Olsen paints a misleading picture of our book. They concern a) the role of history in contemporary thinking, b) the role of Aristotle in our argumentation, and c) the legitimate place of rhetorical criticism. Thus, our response treats fundamental questions for the field of rhetoric.

Replik til recension av The Virtues of Green Marketing: A Constructive Take on Corporate Rhetoric

In The Epistemology of Rhetoric: Plato, Doxa, and Post-Truth, Erik Bengtson sets out to formulate a contemporary epistemology of rhetoric considering the prevailing post-truth condition. In pursuit of this objective, Bengtson challenges dominant myths  surrounding Plato's influence on rhetoric and examines the contemporary scholarly discourse on doxa, shedding light on its various facets. He also introduces the concepts of sedimentation and erosion as tools for comprehending the protracted nature of argumentation on foundational issues. This work not only advances our comprehension of rhetoric in the context of the post-truth era. It also invites readers to reconsider established perspectives, offering fresh insights into the dynamics of argumentationover time.

För några år sedan hade ett företag systematiskt omtalat ett kolkraftverk som koldioxidfritt. Det fick en miljöorganisation att väcka talan. Marknadsdomstolen fann dock att det inte utgjorde vilseledande marknadsföring — det var inte ens marknadsföring. Det här är en rättsretorisk artikel, där vi kommenterar domstolens slutsats och vägen dit. Artikeln visar på motsättningar i synen på marknadsföring mellan marknadsföringsteorin och marknadsföringsrätten. Analysen kan bidra till kunskap om rättsliga strukturer som påverkar möjligheterna för kommande reglering av grön marknadsföring.

This open access book explores the idea that corporate rhetoric can be a force for good. In developing a new framework for analysis and discussion of green marketing, the authors argue that corporate environmental rhetoric can be harnessed to contribute to climate transition and a more sustainable market economy. The work explores the transformative power inherent in green promises and sets a vision of what green marketers should strive for. Engaging with selected research on organizational theory, the authors negotiate the conflicting paradigms of rhetorical theory and their relation to the study of corporate legitimation practices. The resulting theoretical framework provides an analytical scheme that can be useful in various disciplines – such as sociology, economics, law, marketing theory, and communication. It also illustrates how we can find new answers to contemporary challenges by re-imagining rhetoric.

“Greenwashing” har blivit ett modeord; ett uttryck man kan slänga ur sig för att racka ned på sin motståndare. Men vad kännetecknar greenwashing som retorik? Vi ser på de sju gröna synderna – och hur de kan vändas till något konstruktivt, till den gröna omställningens fördel.

The book chapter Sanctification as Argumentation contributes to the field of rhetorical studies by discussing how the dynamics between rhetorical argumentation and myth, understood as a type of emotionally laden, suggestive notions, can be conceptualised theoretically. More specifically, the chapter presents a reading of Ernst Cassirer’s notion of myth, as part of his philosophy of symbolic forms, arguing for its explanatory value. Indoing so, Bengtson contributes to three scholarly discussions. The first one – is the discussion of myth and its relation to argumentation. The second one – concerns how the complex relation between human autonomy and heteronomy can be framed in rhetorical theory. The third one – concerns the question of how Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms can best be adapted to and utilised in rhetorical studiesIn the chapter, Bengtson utilizes the concepts of intensification and sanctification to describe the function of myth. He argues that to understand myth, we need to understand the notion of divinity, and to understand mythical argumentation, we need to understand the process of sanctification.

Caves, images, and symbols are recurring topics in the work of Mats Rosengren, from his reading of Plato in his dissertation Psychagōgia – Konsten att leda själar, to his investigation of the world of paleolithic cave art in Cave Art, Perception and Knowledge. While other philosophers might have descended into the cave with the aim of guiding visitors back up into the blinding light of eternal truths, Rosengren seems to be at home in the underworld. Instead of dismissing the paintings that adorn its walls as merely shadowy copies or distorted images, or claiming that the truth of these pictures is readily available to us, Mats Rosengren invites any traveler joining him to understand them as different forms of sensemaking, forms which at first might appear foreign, but that, upon closer inspection, reveal themselves in all their complexity. In this volume, the contributors take on some of the key themes found in Rosengren’s work, mirroring the stylistic, generic, and topical range that characterizes it. The volume is titled “Shadows in the Cave”, signaling a focus not on eternal truth, but – alluding to Plato – on the shadowplay of our human caves.

This thesis aims to develop an epistemology of rhetoric in light of the apparent contemporary post-truth condition of society. Epistemology is hereby understood as concerned with principles for knowledge production within the academic discipline of rhetoric, as well as with an understanding of knowledge production in the public realm.

The first part of the thesis investigates the opposition between opinion (doxa) and true knowledge (epistēmē), which has been said to be at the very heart of the birth of rhetoric itself. I show through readings of Plato's Gorgias, Phaedrus, Theaetetus, Meno and Republic that the contemporary rendering of this birth is, however, haunted by simplification and misrepresentation. Nevertheless, locating and scrutinising these cracks provides avenues toward a contemporary epistemology of rhetoric, and thus to an alternative to the traditional way of re-assessing rhetoric in the wake of Aristotle.

Part 2 investigates fives routes for a contemporary re-invention of doxa. Barthes represents the structuralist and poststructuralist route, Hariman rhetorical ontology, Amossy the pragmatic study of doxa, and Rosengren rhetorical-philosophical anthropology. These engagements draw inspiration from the general direction of Rosengren’s work, while striving for the analytical sharpness of Barthes and Amossy, as well as highlighting the importance of understanding of the function of metadiscourse. 

In part 3, I present ways to reconsider rhetorical theory and how rhetoricians tend to understand argumentation. Seven principles for rhetorical theory are presented, sketching an understanding of the human position that includes embodiment, takes all forms of symbolic influence into account, and considers the sociality and historicity of being, as well as the capacity for human agency. The thesis concludes by presenting a model for rhetorical argumentation which portrays rhetoric as a process of sedimentation and erosion, constituted from an acknowledgement of the reasonableness of everyday wisdom, the establishment of new myths, and the denaturalisation of prevalent beliefs, desires and identities. In its final section, I return to the ethical challenge at the heart of the post-truth narrative, arguing for the potential inherent in the heroic figure of a champion of autonomy.