Rhetorical Constitution of a Case. The Greek Tradition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52610/rhs.v24i81.20Keywords:
Constitutive rhetoric, logos, Sophism, Aristotle, HeideggerAbstract
This article pursues Maurice Charland’s assumption that the model for constitutive rhetoric can be traced to the Sophists. Through an exposition of the essential conceptual and ontological connections between logos and eris (strife), the purpose is to demonstrate how speaking on peace and conflict is subordinate to a definition of rhetoric as the art of constituting a case. The article refers to Hesiod, Heraclitus, Protagoras, Gorgias, and Aristotle; and drawing on Heidegger, Gadamer, and Grassi, it seeks to free rhetoric from the ordinary understanding that rhetoric should be directed toward a case as something given. Furthermore, the aim is to elaborate on Charland’s account of constitutive rhetoric’s construction of a “people” as a historically determined identity, by clarifying how a constituted case depends on the obscuring of a prior constituting strife, and, briefly, demonstrating that rhetoric on “a people’s case” is a special case of constitutive rhetoric.
References
Aulus Gellius. (2009). Noctes Atticae, 5. bog. I AIGIS. Nordisk tidsskrift for klassiske studier, 9(2).
Cassin, Barbara. (2017). “Rhetoric and Sophistics”. I M. J. MacDonald (Red.). The Oxford Handbook of Rhetorical Studies (s. 143-56). Oxford: Oxford UP.
Cassirer, Ernst. (1944). An Essay on Man. An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books (Yale UP).
Charland, Maurice. (1987). “Constitutive Rhetoric : The Case of the Peuple Québécois”. The Quarterly Journal of Speech, 73(2), s. 133-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335638709383799.
Charland, Maurice. (2001/2006). “Constitutive Rhetoric”. (Cf. Hauser, G. A. et al.: “Politics”). I T. O. Sloane (Red.), Encyclopedia of Rhetoric. Oxford: Oxford UP (e-reference edition). DOI: 10.1093/acref/9780195125955.001.0001.
Diels, Hermann & Kranz, Walther. (1960). Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. Berlin-Neukölln: Weidmannsche Verlagsbuchhandlung.
Foley, Megan. (2013). “Peri Ti?: Interrogating Rhetoric’s Domain”. Philosophy & Rhetoric, 46(2), s. 241-46. Doi: 10.5325/philrhet.46.2.0241.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. (1960/1993). “Die Natur der Sache und die Sprache der Dinge”. I Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 2 (s. 66-76). Tübingen: Mohr.
Gagarin, Michael. (1990) “The Ambiguity of Eris in the Works and Days”. I M. Griffith & D. J. Mastronarde (Red.). Cabinet of the Muses: Essays on Classical and Comparative Literature in Honor of Thomas G. Rosenmeyer (s. 173-83). Berkeley: Scholars Press.
Grassi, Ernesto. (1980). Rhetoric as Philosophy. The Humanist Tradition. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Heidegger, Martin. (1935/1983). Einführung in die Metaphysik, Gesamtausgabe Bd. 40, Frankfurt/M: Vittorio Klostermann.
Heidegger, Martin. (1934/1998) Logik als die Frage nach dem Wesen der Sprache, Gesamtausgabe Bd. 40, Frankfurt/M: Vittorio Klostermann.
Hesiod. (1973). Theogonien/Værker og dage/Skjoldet. København: Gyldendal.
Johnstone, Christopher Lyle. (2009). Listening to the Logos. Speech and the Coming of Wisdom in Ancient Greece. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Lyotard, Jean-François. (1983). Le différend. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit.
Mejer, Jørgen. (1994). Førsokratiske filosoffer ‒ fra Thales til Heraklit. København: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
Pucci, Pietro. (1977). Hesiod and the Language of Poetry. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP.
Reames, Robin. (2017). “Heraclitus’ Doublespeak. The Paradoxical Origins of Rhetorical Logos”. I R. Reames (Red.). Logos without Rhetoric. The Arts of Language before Plato (s. 63-78). Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Schiappa, Edward (1991). “Sophistic Rhetoric: Oasis or Mirage?”. I Rhetoric Review, 10(1), s. 5-18.
Schiappa, Edward. (2003). Protagoras and Logos. A Study in Greek Philosophy and Rhetoric. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Tindale, Christopher W. (2010). Reason’s Dark Champions. Constructive Strategies of Sophistic Argument. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Vernant, Jean-Pierre (1962/2007). Les origines de la pensée grecque. I Œuvres. Religions. Rationalités. Politique, bd. I. Paris: Éditions de Seuil.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Open Access; CC Erkännande-IckeKommersiell-IngaBearbetningar 4.0
