Intercultural communication : Arab culture and reason in contrastive rhetoric theory

Abstract EN

The present paper addresses the problematic contention among practitioners of Contrastive Rhetoric Theory as they strive to reach a universal rhetoric to ensure an effective intercultural communication.

In the last sixty years, opponents and proponents of the theory engaged in a heated argument over the notion of "Culture" as the main variable in this subfield of linguistic studies.

This methodological article thoroughly analyzes the source of antagonism among practitioners and alternatively advances a rather scientific method that takes "Reason" as the main independent variable instead of "Culture".

This study reveals that culture is such a vague concept that causes severe disagreement, while reason is rather a static and unequivocal constituent which itself intrinsic to Culture.

The following review article takes Arab cultural group as its showcase to explain the urge to move from culture to reason in contrastive rhetoric studies.