Learning to Understand Others: The Pragmatic Rhetoric of Ethnography and Religious Ethics in Clifford Geertz’s  Works and Lives

doi:10.1558/eph.v22i2.26140

Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism, Vol 22, No 2 (2014)

Learning to Understand Others: The Pragmatic Rhetoric of Ethnography and Religious Ethics in Clifford Geertz’s Works and Lives

Beth Eddy

Issued Date: 17 Apr 2015

Abstract

This article examines literature from cultural anthropology for insights into ethics. It particularly addresses the moral issue of justly understanding those people different from oneself. Clifford Geertz, pragmatist as well as anthropologist, draws upon the rhetorical theory of Kenneth Burke in his 1988 book Works and Lives. Just this sort of cross-disciplinary borrowing offers resources for understanding what were once religiously-based ethics in a humanistic context. The rhetorical style of various cultural anthropologists serves to inform the rhetorical forms of appeal of theistic and non- theistic ethics.

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DOI: 10.1558/eph.v22i2.26140

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