The Call

Craig R. Smith and Michael J. Hyde’s The Call: Eloquence in the Service of Truth details the existential reality of call, explicating the eloquence of listening and response. The work provides philosophical insight and simultaneously acts as a call to the reader, demanding our own responsible listening and ethical responsiveness. This book is a must-read for those in philosophy of communication and communication ethics, and for all interested in existential ethics and responsiveness.—Ronald C. Arnett, chair and professor, Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies, and Patricia Doherty Yoder and Ronald Wolfe Endowed Chair in Communication Ethics, Duquesne University

This is an important new work. In many ways it returns to the rhetorical tradition of rhetoric in the service of the social good and of the good man skilled in speaking, and it does so through the creative and generative figure of ‘the call.’ This volume addresses issues of personal and social
commitment that are central to understanding discourse today. Every scholar of rhetoric and ethics will want to read and use this important work.—Barry Brummett, Charles Sapp Centennial Professor, Department of Communication Studies, University of Texas at Austin

A fervent and timely defense of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s dictum that “eloquence is the power to translate truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.” Presenting a wide range of cases from antiquity to the present, the authors make a compelling case for linking eloquence with the service of truth, not just as a theoretical ideal, but as a pragmatic necessity.—Stephen E. Lucas, professor emeritus, Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin