Reaching Across the Boundaries of Reasonableness

ABSTRACT

Up to this point, most philosophers have disregarded rhetoric and its usefulness. Aristotle, in contrast, emphasizes the usefulness of rhetoric for political philosophy. He defines three means of persuasion within speech and therefore three means of political persuasion within democracies: logos, ethos, and pathos (Rhetoric 1356a5–30). While the motivation to exercise political acts is a central question in political philosophy as well, nearly all philosophical approaches to solving this question solely revolve around the role of argumentation and reasonableness and therefore around logos. This is also true for Habermas’s discourse principle (2009). Consequently, a common critique of Habermas’s and similar proposals is that they are too idealistic and make unfulfillable assumptions regarding the attributes and characteristics of human beings. It appears to be time to look back on Aristotle and consider the value that the discipline of rhetoric can add to Habermas and political philosophy.