Reinventing the Brain, Revising Neurorhetorics: Phenomenological Networks Contesting Neurobiological Interpretations

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  • David R Gruber
Neuroscience findings employed in professional and academic fields can construct new avenues of inquiry, provide evidence for existing theories, or bolster less-recognized fields of study with exciting research from the brain sciences. However, the strategic, rhetorical alignments or disjunctions that enable those fields to incorporate or reject interpretations of neuroscience data have not yet undergone much discussion. This paper examines how phenomenologists construct the means to contest interpretations of mirror neurons coming from the cognitive neurosciences. The analysis ultimately expands neurorhetorics, demonstrating that rhetorical scholars need not privilege neuroscientific conceptions but can continually “re-invent” the brain, foregrounding multiple ontologies, pursuing alternative rhetorical alignments and performances.
Original languageEnglish
JournalRhetoric Review
Volume35
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)239-253
Number of pages15
ISSN0735-0198
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016
Externally publishedYes

ID: 215412449