Rhetoric and humanities in our time

Abstract

The article deals with issues present in the humanities undergoing the changes due to rhetorization of contemporary culture. First I am discussing the impact of the variability of modern culture on traditional humanities (new methodology and new theory of science based on a rhetorical approach to the text and its symbolic and ideological meaning). This caused the great development of various rhetorical studies in the 20th century (from philosophy of language to practical art of speaking and argumentation). In our time, those studies answer the questions: 1) why and for what reasons do we depend on other people's views? 2) how can we exert a positive influence by text communication on other individuals? Therefore, nowadays we are seeing a new rhetorical trend in communication studies concerning all the culture texts – this trend also affects literary studies and cultural anthropology: academic disciplines which adopt the research tools of the traditional and new rhetorical workshop. This new attitude towards the humanities has an impact on general education at schools and universities.