Consigny, Scott. “Rhetoric and Its Situations.” Philsophy and Rhetoric 7 (1974): 175-186.
After summarizing the arguments put forth by Bitzer and Vatz concerning the rhetorical situation, Consigny argues that while “Bitzer correctly construes the rhetorical situation as characterized by ‘particularities,’ but misconstrues the situation as being thereby determinate and determining…Vatz correctly treats the rhetor as creative, but that he fails to account for the real constraints on the rhetor’s activity” (176). He thus proposes mediating on rhetoric as an art, “an art of ‘topics’ or commonplaces” (176).
In the first section, Consigny provides a more in-depth summary of Bitzer’s argument (“the rhetor does not differ from the expert or scientist who can solve specific problems by using well-formulated methods or procedures” (177)), before refuting it, stating that “the rhetorical situation is not one created solely through the imagination and discourse of the rhetor” (178) and what the rhetor must be able to do (178-179)
In the second section, Consigny stresses that
The real question for rhetorical theory will become not whether the rhetor or situation is dominant, but how, in each case, the rhetor can become engaged in the novel and indeterminate situation and yet have a means of making sense of it. (179)
Again, Consigny zeroes in on faults in Bitzer’s and Vatz’s arguments (180) before explaining how a rhetor must function to be effective, how the art of rhetoric is both heuristic and managerial (180) and then introducing the conditions of integrity and receptivity. He illuminates the former as demanding that “rhetoric as an art provide the rhetor with a ‘universal’ capacity such that the rhetor can function in all kinds of indeterminate and particular situations as they arise” (180). He illuminates the latter as “allowing the rhetor to become engaged in individual situations without simply inventing and thereby predetermining which problems he is going to find in them” (181). Consigny concludes this section thusly:
…the rhetor must remain receptive to the particularities of the individual situation in a way that he can discover relevant issues. If the art of rhetoric does not allow for receptivity, the rhetorical act will be neither heuristic nor managerial. (181)
In the third section, Consigny states that “the art of rhetoric must not predetermine what the rhetor finds in the novel situation” (181) before explaining further the topic, “a device which allows the rhetor to discover, through selection and arrangement, that which is relevant and persuasive in particular situations” (181). Furthermore, “the topic functions both as instrument and situation; the instrument with which the rhetor thinks and the realm in and about which he thinks” (182), and Consigny explains how Bitzer ignores the instrument and Vatz ignores the situation, before stressing that “the topic must maintain a dynamic interplay between instrument and realm, thereby mediating between and dissolving the apparent antimony of rhetor and situation” (182). From this, Consigny follows Aristotle in explaining that “the formal and the material factors must exist in a dynamic interrelation if the rhetor is to be able to discover and manage the particular exigence of the situation” (183).
The rhetor possess a freedom of choice, of course, but “not any choice of terms will be functional in a given situation” (183), and Consigny also explains the option available to rhetors regarding various modes of opposition: contradictories and correlatives (183-184). In the final two full paragraphs on the following page, Consigny explains how rhetoric as the art of topics meets the conditions of integrity and receptivity. And, in conclusion, Consigny reiterates his main argument before closing thusly:
The real question in rhetorical theory is not whether the situation or the rhetor is “dominant,” but the extent, in each case, to which the rhetor can discover and control indeterminate matter, using his art of topics to make sense of what would otherwise remain simply absurd. (185)