Retorica Vivente. Un approccio retorico alla filosofia del linguaggio.

Abstract

Starting from some suggestions from Living Thought. The Origins and Actuality of Italian Philosophy (R. Esposito, 2010), this paper sustains that rhetoric can be a fruitful way of doing philosophy of language. According to Esposito, one of the main characteristics of the so called italian thought is the focus on the necessary connection between language and extra-linguistic world. In this article I argue that rhetoric, thanks to its extra-linguistic aim (persuasion), pays particular attention to this connection. This attitude involves many important consequences such as: 1. considering speakers and listeners as essential components of speech and not as its external users; 2. assigning a key position to the listener; 3. including the sphere of emotion in the field of reflection on language; 4. considering truth as a social practice; 5. considering the agonistic dimension as a constitutive element of the speech. All these characteristics make rhetoric a productive philosophical reflection on language.