Universal rhetoric

Universal rhetoric is a central concept in Charles Sanders Peirce's philosophy. According to Peirce, the main purpose of universal rhetoric is to consider questions of Inquiry in the context of community,^[1] and "the very origin of the conception of reality shows that this conception ultimately involves a COMMUNITY, without definite limits, and capable of a definite increase of knowledge."^[2]

Peirce alternatively called it speculative rhetoric,^[3] general rhetoric, formal rhetoric, objective logic, or methodeutic.^[4] It constitutes the third and last branch of his general theory of signs.^[3][4]