Abstract

Perhaps no concept has been as commonplace in rhetorical theory and yet so resistant to theorizing as that of propriety, the need to adapt speech to the variables of situation. Adam Smith's treatment of propriety in his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres and The Theory of Moral Sentiments is extensive and original, yet it has received little attention from rhetoric scholars. ;After a preliminary discussion of several philosophical, theoretical, and disciplinary problems endemic to the concept, rhetorical propriety in the classical tradition is analyzed. Six characteristics emerge: propriety originates in the natural order; it is associated with clear sensual perception; it occasions pleasure in hearers; it results in social distinction for speakers; it involves achieving a mean between extremes; it is constrained by the circumstances of the speech situation. Different attitudes towards propriety are related to skeptical, idealist, and realist epistemological positions. The study continues with an analysis of applications of propriety in the eighteenth century; insight is drawn from French aesthetics, the development of stylistic norms for scientific writing, and the employment of "taste" as a standard in ethics and literary criticism. ;Smith's theory of rhetorical propriety often bears significant similarities to its antecedents, yet a close reading of the LRBL also shows Smith's theory to be original in important ways: propriety is the central principle of his theory of communication; it is uniquely capable of communicating sentiments as moral judgments; it entails a concept of "indirect description," by which a rhetor communicates the nature of an object by representing emotional responses to it; it performs functions traditionally handled by topical invention. A close reading of the TMS shows, contrary to the view which sees the LRBL as derivative of the TMS, that this theory of rhetorical propriety underwrites Smith's ethical theory. Smith's theory of rhetorical propriety is shown to supplement for the epistemological infrastructure conspicuously absent from the TMS. The conclusion evaluates whether these rhetorical underpinnings clarify or improve Smith's account of moral thinking and considers the value of Smith's theory for the conduct of contemporary public discourse