Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 352
The argument starts before the recommendation
Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca show how practical argument seeks reasoned adherence through premises, presence, association, dissociation, and audience construction
Premise
Many executive decisions cannot be demonstrated like a theorem. Questions of fairness, proportionality, urgency, legitimacy, or acceptable risk remain contestable even when the facts are known. The New Rhetoric treats those situations as domains of practical argument: reasons must work through values, starting points, language, and audiences rather than formal validity alone.
That changes audience analysis from a late-stage exercise in tone to part of the reasoning itself. A recommendation can be technically coherent yet fail because it begins from premises the decision makers do not grant. Conversely, successful persuasion can still be weak argument if adherence is won through selective presence, protected categories, or reasons that cannot survive wider scrutiny.
What the model is: The New Rhetoric in Knowledge →
Continue in the series
- The essential model
- Why this matters
- Risks and limits
- Executive takeaway
- Key questions
- Selected sources
The full brief is in its volume, with the other works of the series.
Need the full brief now? Request it under NDA →
New works are announced in The Debrief. Subscribe →
- FamilyModel
- CategoryTheories & Explanatory Models
- DomainPersuasion & Argument
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.
- KnowledgeThe New Rhetoric