Handbuch Rhetorik und Philosophie

Bernhard Waldenfels

22Rhetorik, Alterität und Responsivität

Abstract: The controversial relation between philosophy and rhetoric depends on the assessment of speech. As long as the representative function and the objective of truth have a dominating role, the question, who says something to others and how, is placed behind the question what someone says. A dialogue reigned by one sole logos tends to become a monologue with shifting roles. This view changes, if the dialogue presents itself as a polyphonic speech, as illustrated by Bachtin in his novel theory. The rhetoric develops an individual weight within philosophical thinking as soon as the Other also shapes the speech as an addressee and as an addresser, when one’s own speech is understood ...