RHETORICS OF SCIENCE
Considering what is rhetorical about science beyond the bounds of text
A WOMAN'S OPTICS: MARGARET CAVENDISH, SENSORY MIMESIS, AND EARLY MODERN RHETORICS OF SCIENCE
Accounts of the rhetorical tradition in early modern England often focus on the Royal
Society of London and the scientific epistemologies and visual pedagogies surrounding
technologies like the microscope. One critic of the Royal Society, Margaret Cavendish,
theorized her own optics to counter the increasing inclusivity of that scientific
community.
This study in The Journal for the History of Rhetoric reveals how the rhetorical concept of
mimesis allowed Cavendish to build a theory of embodied, material sight that challenged
objectivity as it was emerging. This critically imaginative analysis thus brings forth an early
rhetorics of science in which alternative epistemologies may critique mechanical,
experimental processes.
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