Duncanson to lecture on eco-logic and eco-rhetoric

Submitted by Jeff Stepp
Phone: (907) 474-6026
07/16/07

Tom Duncanson, a communication ethics specialist, will present a free public lecture, "Eco-logic and Eco-rhetoric: A Different Kind of Tragedy of the Commons," Tuesday, July 17 at 5:30 p.m. in the Wood Center multilevel lounge

Duncanson offers the following previow of his lecture: "Aristotle wrote that rhetoric and dialectic (roughly, logic) are counterparts. So if ecology, ’eco-logic,’ represents a new kind of logic, is there a new kind of rhetoric, ’eco-rhetoric,’ to be its counterpart? It would seem that the survival of the human species may depend on just this, on bringing our powers of persuasion into line with what we are able to discover of our environment’s complex interactions. It’s easy to be pessimistic about either eco-logic or eco-rhetoric ever keeping pace with actual environmental changes, but now is the time for a sober assessment of the problem."

Duncanson teaches in the communication department at Millikin University. He has made presentations at national and international meetings on topics such as ethical theory, applied communication ethics, critical studies of advertising and popular culture, and the intellectual foundations of the freedom of expression tradition.

CONTACT: UAF Student Activities at (907) 474-6026.

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