TY - JOUR
TI - Rhetoric: A Theory of Political Lie or The Essence of Politics? Reflections on the Thought of the Sophists, Hannah Arendt, and Jacques Derrida
AU - Mielczarski, Cyprian
TI - Rhetoric: A Theory of Political Lie or The Essence of Politics? Reflections on the Thought of the Sophists, Hannah Arendt, and Jacques Derrida
AB - This paper offers an outline of practical and theoretical relations between truth and rhetoric. A point of departure for considerations to follow are philosophical theories of the sophists, Plato, and Aristotle as well as modern commentators of political rhetoric. I argue that the predominantly rhetorical nature of contemporary culture is inextricably bound up with the controversial issue of political deception, its definition and function. I refer to the theories of Hannah Arendt and Jacques Derrida pertaining to the following issues: a relation between acting and lying, mass deception, and self–deception in totalitarian states. I further propose that classical ethics developing from Plato, Aristotle and Kant fails as a basis for the analysis of political and social processes in democratic societies. Key to grasping these processes is rhetoric – as an art of persuasion – which has nothing to do with the traditional true–false dichotomy.
VL - 2018
IS - Volume 50
PY - 2018
SN - 0078-6500
C1 - 2657-5337
SP - 147
EP - 163
DO - 10.4467/00786500.ORG.18.007.9501
UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/organon/article/rhetoric-a-theory-of-political-lie-or-the-essence-of-politics-reflections-on-the-thought-of-the-sophists-hannah-arendt-and-jacques-derrida
KW - rhetoric
KW - the sophists
KW - relativism
KW - political deception
KW - totalitarianism