book announcement: information rhetorics

​Information Rhetorics, a new book by Benjamin Bennett-Carpenter, was recently published by Routledge (April 2026) and is now available through select libraries, amazon, and local bookshops by special order.  A preview is available through Google Books.

Description

Combining a rhetorical approach to the study of memes with profound philosophical concepts about information as a fundamental building block of existence, Information Rhetorics presents a framework for understanding the world through the lens of information transfer.

Drawing from rhetorical theory, semiotics, philosophy of information, and communications studies, the author explores how information – defined not as static facts but as transmitted significance and value – flows through both animate and inanimate realms. He examines how specialized terminologies function across disciplines while connecting to vernacular understandings of information transfer. By positioning memes as a heuristic tool, the author creates an interdisciplinary framework that illuminates economics, spirituality, and social theory.

This book will interest scholars, students, and researchers across disciplines, particularly those working in philosophy of information, rhetoric, semiotics, cultural studies, and communication studies.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction to Memetica: A Contemporary Rhetoric of Information
2 Heuristic toward Everything
3 Memetics as Heuristic Rhetoric
4 Memetica as a Complex Signifying Ecology
5 Information Rhetorics: Holistic and Differentiated
6 Memetica Otherwise/Critiqued
7 Memetica Applied:  Economics, Spirituality, Social Theory
8 Conclusion and What’s Next

Reviews

"I like books that take on big topics and expertly synthesize understandings from diverse fields. Carpenter deals with the whole world and explores how we can best understand this as an 'ecology of information.'  He shows how such an approach guides us to ask new questions about our world."

-- Rick Szostak, University of Alberta, Canada

“A book that shows that the meme is an object of rhetoric and not an object of science.”

-- David Krakauer, President and William H. Miller Professor of Complex Systems, Santa Fe Institute, USA

"An all-encompassing attempt to conceptualize unity, diversity, and complexity in contemporary contexts. An important brick in the emerging building of memetics. This project is as ambitious as that of Vernadsky’s Noosphere."

-- Thorsten Botz-Bornstein, Professor of Philosophy, Gulf University of Science and Technology, Kuwait


Preview (at Google Books):

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Information_Rhetorics/p4TBEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

Bio

Benjamin Bennett-Carpenter writes philosophy and poetry. He teaches at Oakland University, USA, and consults and coaches at Sollars and Associates, Michigan, USA. Bennett-Carpenter is the author of Death in Documentaries (2018) and Explaining Jesus (2019). His current project is on how humans live.