Argues that the view of writing as a social activity fails to account for individual cognition. Suggests that subjectivity results from a dialectical interplay between consciousness and ideological forces. Calls for further investigation of how context guides cognition and what role cognition plays in the social negotiation of knowledge. (SG)

This paper argues for a dialectical conception of theory that avoids the problem of trying to yoke together theories that embody conflicting epistemological and idealogical concerns in any unified way. Called a "cognitive-social epistemic," this dialectic is a theoretical construct that subsumes a family of cognitive and social theories…

Examines two responses to current traditional rhetoric--the new romantics who insist on the primacy of discovery and the new classicists who believe in aiding discovery through systematic heuristic procedures. (HOD)