The Call of Conscience

Michael J. Hyde's pathbreaking study considers the relationship between the phenomenon of conscience and the practice of rhetoric as it relates to one of the most controversial issues of our time -- euthanasia. Hyde investigates how the practice of rhetoric becomes a voice of conscience and influences the moral standards of individuals and communities. In doing so, he offers the first extensive treatment of Martin Heidegger's and Emmanuel Levinas's philosophical investigations of conscience and an in-depth analysis of the justifiability and social acceptability of euthanasia. Hyde establishes the theoretical basis of his study by discussing and critically assessing the phenomenological theories of conscience set forth in the works of the two philosophers. To illustrate in concrete terms how the relationship between the call of conscience and the practice of rhetoric shows itself in everyday existence, Hyde surveys the moral discourse that informs the ongoing debate in the United States over euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. He focuses on a cluster of related topics that emerge from his discussion of the work of Heidegger and Levinas, including the phenomena of deconstruction and acknowledgment, emotion and the reconstructive power of language, and the discursive creation of heroes. Through these investigations Hyde accounts for some of the key definitions, arguments, and narratives that contribute to the rhetoric of the euthanasia debate, especially as the discussion has evolved since the late 1980s.

ISBN 1570033889   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9781570033889 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 653 Publisher University of South Carolina Press   Published in South Carolina Imprint University of South Carolina Press   Series editor Benson, Thomas W. Format Hardback   Series title Studies in Rhetoric/Communication Publication date 28 Feb 2001   Height (mm) 229 Library of Congress BJ1471.H93   Width (mm) 152 DEWEY 179.7   Spine width (mm) 28 DEWEY edition DC21   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate Pages 320

		Series Editor's Preface
		Preface
		Acknowledgments
		Abbreviations
		Introduction: Bringing Together Theory and Practice		1
Pt. I		Theory: Conscience and Rhetoric		19
Ch. 1		Heidegger and the Call of Conscience: A Question of Being		21
Ch. 2		The Ontological Workings of the Call of Conscience		40
Ch. 3		Levinas and the Call of Conscience: A Question of the Other		79
Pt. II		Practice: Conscience, Rhetoric, and the Euthanasia Debate		117
		My Father		119
Ch. 4		The Call of Conscience/Rhetoric/Medicine		124
Ch. 5		Reconstruction: Emotions, Definitions, Arguments, and Stories		151
Ch. 6		The Rhetorical Construction of Heroes		187
Ch. 7		The Face of the Needed Caregiver		220
Ch. 8		Where Art Thou? Here I Am!		255
		Notes		265
		Index		291

 Be the first to write a customer review