Abstract

This article argues that the pace of research and major breakthroughs in contemporary science (1950 to the present) has slowed considerably compared to pre-1950 science and that this slower tempo is manifested textually in scientific discourse as a rhetoric of incrementalism. Incrementalism warrants scrutiny as a rhetorical figure because its meaning has changed from pre-1950 to post-1950 science to now include an element of risk aversion in addition to the earlier implications of science as systematic and deliberate. After locating the idea of incrementalism theoretically within the literature on the contexts of discovery and justification and the Post-Normal Science movement, I position incrementalism in the rhetoric of science within pace-related discussions of scientific revolutions and kairos, and then as a trope closest to skotison (i.e., intentional obscurity) and the figure of thought of significatio (i.e., subtlety and complexity). Given the gradual nature of the change in meaning, I refer to incrementalism as an inertial trope. With its biopolitical implications, incrementalism is also a zoetrope because it exacerbates the prioritization of certain groups of human lives. A case study on research in pancreatic cancer is presented to illustrate the rhetoric of incrementalism, and the implications of incrementalism are discussed.

Keywords

rhetoric, science, incrementalism, trope, history, risk

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