by Melissa Miles McCarter

Created on: November 13, 2009

Many different theorists have discussed how truth is arrived at through different language practices. The rhetorical tradition reflects many different perspectives on how people interpret reality and make meaning out of reality through their use of language.

No matter what time period in history is being discussed, various thinkers have discussed the importance of interpetation in discerning truth. These different reviews range between the religious perspective, such as:

1. According to Augustine, the process of interpretation is essential for understanding the Scriptures, to the Ancient Greek perspective;

2. The Sophists argued that test truth through opposing views exposes reality, since the real is the product of contradictions;

3.The modern perspective of dramatism put forth by Kenneth Burke, in which understanding the motivation of individuals is a way to know truth, and truth is a rhetorical product;

4. The post-critical perspective, in which Foucault argues that whoever posesses power is the one who creates knowledge and pushes forth certain views and interpretations;

5. And the subjective point of view put forth by Richard McKeon that there is no fixed truth of one text and must consider all possible meanings to understand and make meaning in any given situation.

All of these views of truth highlight interpretation as a powerful function of rhetoric, more powerful than Aristotle's claim that rhetoric is primarily the art of persuasion. In fact, according to Steven Mailloux, the proper way to describe how humans make meaning is through rhetorical hermeneutics, where you understanding conflicts in meaning and power struggles as what makes various claims to truth. In this perspective, persuasion and interpretation are connected and to understand how a text is created and produced gives information on what the meaning of the text might be.

However, this connection of truth and language is not limited to making sense out of texts. According to Roland Barthes, interpretation of images involves making meaning as well. Texts may refer to the world in an indirect manner, leading to varied types of interpretations, as Paul Ricoeur suggests, but it doesn't mean that images are any less rich in possible meanings. All language practices, whether visual, textual, or oral, reflect how the human mind tries to arrive at truth through making meaning.

In fact, some claim that there is no thought prior to language and that the process of communicating is always the process of making meaning. If this is truth, then truth-seeking is always the function of rhetoric.

Learn more about this author, Melissa Miles McCarter.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.