Joseph W. Wenzel

Professor Emeritus

Education: Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests: Rhetorical theory and criticism; argumentation as a method of critical decision-making; the rhetoric of argumentation; the nature of and relationships among norms of argumentation derived from dialectic, logic, and rhetoric; contemporary theories of argumentation, especially those of Habermas, Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca, and Toulmin.

Current Research: Professor Wenzel's most recent work, carried on mainly through conference papers and discussions, is aimed at bridging the gap between rhetoric and other approaches to the study of argumentation, especially informal logic and pragma-dialectics.

Representative Recent Publications:

Wenzel, J. W. (1993). Cultivating practical reason: Argumentation theory in postmodernity. In R. E. McKerrow (Ed.), Argument and the Postmodern Challenge: Proceedings of the Eighth SCA/AFA Summer Conference on Argumentation (pp. 1-7). Annandale, VA: Speech Communication Association.

Wenzel, J. W. (1990). Three perspectives on argument: Rhetoric, dialectic, logic. In J. Schuetz & R. Trapp (Eds.), Perspectives on argumentation: Essays in honor of Wayne Brockriede (pp. 9-26). Prospect heights, IL: Waveland.

Wenzel, J. W. (1987). The rhetorical view of argumentation: Exploring a paradigm. Argumentation, 1, 73-88.