The symbolic construction of social realities: A case study in the rhetorical criticism of paradox

This essay explores the possibility that a rhetorical figure can create, maintain, and mediate a perspective of reality or worldview. By way of an extended example, the rhetorical figure of paradox is cast as an organizing construct, creating a kind of “order”; or logic among experiences and phenomena typically felt to be at odds with one another. The ways in which a “paradoxical worldview”; can come into existence syntactically, semantically, and pragmatically are specified. In addition, the range of reactions to a paradoxical worldview, for both users and non‐users are described. The essay concludes by identifying prototypes, parameters, and evaluation principles for the analysis of paradoxical worldviews. Thus, this analysis ultimately posits that any rhetorical figure can theoretically generate and control a worldview.