The Ethics of Rhetoric and Life Without Prejudice: Essays on Language, Culture, and Society

The landmark work The Ethics of Rhetoric and a selection of essays on language, modernity, education, and cultural freedom by scholar and rhetorician Richard Weaver, a leading figure in the rise of the modern conservative intellectual movement.

＂As man speaks,＂ said Seneca, ＂so is he.＂

In The Ethics of Rhetoric, Richard Weaver demonstrates that rhetoric, the language used to move men to action, expresses or betrays the ultimate values of its user. Included alongside are a selection of essays previously published as Life Without Prejudice, with the title essay addressing how a single word can become a flail to beat enemies and make traditional distinctions taboo. Other essays included are ＂The Importance of Cultural Freedom,＂ ＂Education and the Individual,＂ ＂Two Types of American Individualism,＂ ＂Reflections on Modernity,＂ ＂The Best of Everything,＂ ＂Up From Liberalism,＂ and ＂Conservatism and Libertarianism: The Common Ground.＂

Richard M. Weaver taught for nearly two decades at the University of Chicago before his death in 1963. A student under both John Crowe Ransom and Cleanth Brooks, Weaver was a well-known adherent of the Southern Agrarian school of social criticism. His books and essays have established him as one of the most important and influential philosophers of the twentieth century.