Rhetorical Criticism as a World-Disclosing Critique : A Nietzschean Perspective

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Abstract

This paper examines the contributions of Friedrich Nietzsche to the theory and practice of rhetorical criticism through readings of Beyond Good and Evil, The Genealogy of Morals, The Will to Power, "The Philosopher, " and "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense." In several writings and lectures on rhetoric, Nietzsche sought to rehabilitate the sophistic tradition by highlighting the evocative function of rhetoric. His conception of rhetoric as an art of evocation has important implications for the field of rhetorical criticism in which Aristotle's influence continues long after the avowed rejection of neo-Aristotelianism. Drawing on Nietzsche's sophistic view of rhetoric, the paper explores the idea of rhetorical criticism as a world-disclosing critique. A world-disclosing critique is a form of social criticism intended to provoke a changed perception of the world so that its hitherto neglected pathological character becomes noticeable. Importantly, it is a rhetorical mode of inquiry because the critic uses rhetoric as a primary tool for evoking new ways of seeing the social world. The paper argues that Nietzsche's scathing critique of metaphysics was quintessentially a world-disclosing form of rhetorical criticism insofar as he engaged the full power and force of rhetoric to unmask the ungrounded nature of reason, truth, and morality anchored in the tradition of metaphysics. The paper concludes by considering both merits and limits of a world-disclosing critique. As German philosopher Axel Honneth suggests, it is hard to provide rational justifications for a disclosing critique since a truth claim cannot be raised for rhetorically conveyed assertions. Nevertheless, it can be deemed a legitimate form of criticism because certain types of social problems can be brought to the fore only by means of rhetorical devices.

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