Ordering the Mind: Reading Style in Hugh Blair

Abstract

Hugh Blair’s rhetorical theory reflects the tenets of New Science, answering the call for communication as the transfer of knowledge from the composer to the audience. Reading Blair on style through the Enlightenment cognitive model of physiological psychology suggests a mutual cognitive associative model. In this model, style is essential, not ornamental, as it limits dissonance in the audience’s cognitive process through perspicuity.

Notes

1 I would like to thank RR reviewers Lois Agnew and Brain Ray for their thoughtful feedback on this manuscript.

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Notes on contributors

Heather Blain Vorhies

Heather Blain Vorhies is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research interests include Enlightenment transatlantic rhetoric, the history of scientific and technical communication, and graduate writers and writing centers. Her work has appeared in Peitho and WLN.