The Jewish Countermodel: Talmudic Argumentation, the New Rhetoric Project, and the Classical Tradition of Rhetoric

Chaim Perelman andLucie Olbrechts- Tyteca 's New Rhetoric Project (NRP) helped revive the study of rhetoric in the twentieth century. Although some believe their work is largely a reiteration of Aristotle's rhetoric and that Perelman owes a significant debt to Aristotle, I present evidence in this paper that Perelman was quite critical of the Western tradition of philosophy and of Aristotle's logic and rhetoric. Perelman turned to Jewish thinking and Talmudic argumentation as a countermodel. Jewish metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, and argument are the central touchstones of the NKP.
Keywords: Perelman, Judaism, Talmudic argumentation, Aristotle, rheto