Michael J. Hyde

An investigation into how rhetoric informs the ongoing debate over euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.

6 x 9, 320 pages
cloth, ISBN 1-57003-388-9, $39.95s
Studies in Rhetoric/Communication
Thomas W. Benson, series editor

ABOUT THE BOOK

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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael J. Hyde is the Distinguished University Professor of Communication Ethics at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He has taught at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and at Northwestern University in Chicago and is a fellow of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. The author of articles and critical reviews published in various scholarly journals and texts, Hyde is the editor of Communication Philosophy and the Technological Age, coeditor of Rhetoric and Hermeneutics in Our Time: A Reader, and producer of the documentary film "Negotiating Death: A Rhetorical Perspective on Euthanasia." Hyde lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

REVIEWS

"In this book Michael Hyde shows why he is the principal mentor for us all on matters relating philosophy to rhetoric. Almost effortlessly, he moves across the two disciplines, demonstrating the entwinement of philosophical theory and rhetorical practice. Focusing on the philosophical contributions of Heidegger and Levinas, he interprets and describes the call of conscience as providing the content and measure for rhetorical practice as it is illustrated in the profoundly vibrant euthanasia debate."—Calvin O. Schrag, Purdue University

"Fusing Heidegger's sense of human being with Levinas's notion of human caring, Michael Hyde crafts an ethical theory of human relationships that at once rehabilitates rhetoric as the art of moral action, and philosophy as a site of ethical knowing. Fervently believing that the value of any ethical theory resides in the practical insights it provides into ongoing moral problems, Hyde reinvents and realigns the moral choices that have become polarized and intractable in the often tragic and poignant public debate on euthanasia. This is a remarkable work that will unsettle the current basis of rhetorical theory and moral philosophy."—Tom Frentz, University of Arkansas

"Michael Hyde's provocative case studies and insightful textual analyses invite the reader to hear and answer the call of conscience. The call is neither trivial nor avoidable, as Heidegger's and Levinas's philosophies of being make clear. If you thought euthanasia was an uncomplicated question, Hyde's book will quickly convince you otherwise."—David Zarefsky, Northwestern University

"This makes for a refreshing new approach to the euthanasia debate and one worth reading."—Choice

"Hyde's work is an engaging and important example of how one might understand the role of rhetoric in a pluralistic culture. What we have here is a glimpse of a real-life postmodern rhetorical ethics, one that insists on taking responsibility for maintaining a plurality of voices in every discussion. This is a vigilant rhetoric dedicated to seeing that the 'faces' of the suffering and dying are not obscured by our tendency to sanitize them with a discourse that would protect us from their pain and help us avoid responsibility for their untidy existence."—Rhetoric Review

AWARDS

2001 Marie Hochmuth Nichols Prize, National Communication Association

2001 Diamond Anniversary Award, National Communication Association

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