Rhetorical deliberation. A sustainable normativism from a Gorgianic-Aristotelian perspective

Abstract

Starting from the discursive turn that has characterized democracy since the 80s of the last century, our article tries to outline a form of sustainable normativism. To do this, we use a theoretical framework derived from ancient Greek rhetoric and in particular from the reflection of Gorgias and Aristotle. In our perspective, on the one hand, the Gorgianic view is a useful reminder of the role that the pursuit of power and the possibility of conflict unavoidably play in the form of argumentation specific to the public sphere, that is, deliberation. On the other hand, Aristotle, thanks to his emphasis on the link between logos and desire and his analysis of truth available in deliberative contexts, sheds light on the kind of norms that it is reasonable to expect (and so it is useful to search for) in the public sphere.