Rhetorical and Communication Theory: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in 'Dissertation Abstracts International,' July 1979 through June 1980 (Vol. 40 Nos. 1 through 12).

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 16 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the philosophy of rhetoric; (2) an analytical study of the development of major concepts of causality in philosophy; (3) an ontological approach to interpersonal communication pedagogy; (4) a textual approach to communication; (5) the ideas of Paulo Freire on communication and culture; (6) Jurgen Habermas and political analysis; (7) a hermeneutic analysis of human speaking, including an examination of the works of Martin Heidegger, Paul Ricoeur, and Hans-Georg Gadamer; (8) tbe "Eide" of apologetic discourse; (9) Aristotle's concept of deistic reference as a rhetorical device; (10) Gorgias on rhetoric; (11) a critical analysis and examination of the issue of speech as an overlaid function; (12) a communicative theory of text; (13) the place of rules in human communication inquiry; (14) mystical ontology in Kenneth Burke; (15) an epistemological, theoretical, and methodological approach to cognitive activity; and (16) a theory of semiotics, communications technologies, and culture. (MKM)