He argues that the rhetor must have ways of choosing among the indeterminacies to determine the situation; in this, rhetoric is both a heuristic and managerial art. It is heuristic in that the rhetoric must “have a repertoire of options and the freedom to select way of making sense anew in each case” (180-1). He calls this the condition of integrity. It is managerial because the rhetoric must “become engaged in individual situations without simly inventing and thereby predetermining which problems he is going to find in them” (181). This is the condition of receptivity.
Similarly, he explains that rhetoric is “an art of topics or commonplaces” (181). Topic has two simultaneous meanings. First, it “is a device which allows the rhetor to discover, through selection and arrangement, that which is relevant and persuasive in particular situations” (181). At the same time, it is “a realm in which the rhetor thinks and acts” (182). In other words, “the topic functions both as instrument and situation; the instrument with which the rhetor thinks and the realm in wand about which he thinks” (182).