The Excellence Award at the Fonds Ricœur’s Summer Workshop 2021 - “Ricœur rhétorique. The Missed Encounter with Chaïm Perelman in The Rule of Metaphor”

Authors

  • Blake D. Scott Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/errs.2021.575

Keywords:

Audience, Reader, Rhetoric, Ricœur, Perelman.

Abstract

This paper argues that Ricœur’s philosophy operates on the basis of a more expansive conception of rhetoric than it first appears. To show this, I reread The Rule of Metaphor through the “new rhetoric” of Chaïm Perelman. First, I survey Ricœur’s understanding of rhetoric in the 1950s and 60s. Second, I examine Ricœur’s relation to Perelman within the context of the broader “rhetorical turn” of the 1970s. After examining their respective positions, I argue that Ricœur fails to appreciate the full significance of Perelman’s conception of audience. In doing so, I draw attention to the central role that Ricœur himself ascribes to the audience or reader in the “work of meaning.” I conclude by proposing that the rhetorical triad of logos/ethos/pathos may serve as a conceptual matrix with which the rhetorical aspects of Ricœur’s philosophy can be interpreted.

References

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Published

2021-12-15

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 2 (2021)

Section

Varia

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