Arguing and Thinking: A Rhetorical Approach to Social Psychology

Michael Billig

Cambridge University Press, Apr 9, 1987 - Psychology - 290 pages

Arguing and Thinking is an entertaining and scholarly exposition of ideas of rhetoric - from Classical times to the nineteenth century - viewed as social psychological theories. It is self-confessedly unorthodox. Social psychologists may probe experimentally the foundations of 'attitude-change' or 'persuasive communication', but in so doing, Michael Billig claims in his Introduction, 'they are continuing to think about the same sort of issues as those which filled the contents of Aristotle's Rhetoric, or Cicero's Orator, or Quintilian's Institutes of Oratory'. He is especially concerned to point out the relations between thinking and arguing, and suggests that the ability to contradict is one of the most important mental faculties. The argumentative aspects of attitudes, commonsense, roles and cognitive processes are discussed as the author himself takes issue with some familiar psychological theories.

About the author

Michael Billig has been at Loughborough since 1985, when he was appointed Professor of Social Sciences. He had previously been a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Birmingham University, having been an undergraduate and postgraduate at Bristol University. He has also been a visiting professor for short spells at Temple University in Philadelphia, University of California and University of Rome. At Loughborough, Michael teaches on the first year Introductory Course in Social Psychology. He also teaches Historical and Conceptual Issues in the second year. Originally, Michael trained as an experimental social psychologist, under the supervision of Henri Tajfel, who was probably the most influential social psychologist in post-war Britain. Michael was involved in designing the original minimal group experiments, which formed the basis of Tajfel s well-known Social Identity Theory. Since his Bristol days, Michael s interests, however, have moved towards qualitative approaches and towards developing the sort of critical social psychology which will be linked with other social sciences. He is the author of numerous books and articles, which reflect his parallel concerns with theory and with studying ways of thinking, especially ideological thought. His first book, Social Psychology and Intergroup Relations (Academic Press, 1976), provided a critique of orthodox social psychological approaches to the study of prejudice. After that work, he studied an extreme right-wing group, showing how the members thinking was influenced by the group s ideology (Fascists: a social psychologial view of the National Front, Academic Press, 1979).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Arguing and Thinking: A Rhetorical Approach to Social Psychology; Cambridge Texts in Applied Mathematics; Volume 6 of European Monographs in Social Psychology, ISSN 0892-7286
• Author: Michael Billig
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1987
• ISBN: 052132789X, 9780521327893
• Length: 290 pages
• Subjects: Psychology / Movements / General; Psychology / Social Psychology