Communication with the Future and its Appropriation in the Rhetorical Images of Time

Abstract

The article presents the material of the original masters-level lecture course “Practical Rhetoric and Communication Management” and addresses the problems of theoretical and applied philosophy regarding the probability factor. It involves free self-awareness, conventional types of knowledge, forecasting modes, specific types of intellectual activity and the relevant types of speech, when communication appears as a dialogue with the future, which, in confirmation of the original unity of time, illuminates all three temporal forms.The Preamble defines the reasons supporting the topicality of the “problem of the future” in the Human World, which provokes a demand for the ability to a) think about the future, b) speak its language, and c) understand its tools. The role of rhetoric in realization of our relationship with the future is noted.In Section I, rhetoric is presented as a kind of art and a subject of knowledge. Considered in three dimensions and in connection with three types of mind, it is defined as the free self-consciousness convincingly expressed in language.Section II presents practical rhetoric as an art of conscious speech management of life in time and space. The connection between it, time and the probable dimension of life has been clarified. The concept and term “rhetorical images of time” are proposed, the possible composition of the latter is given.In Section III, the rhetorical images of time in the field of activity are considered, a definition and language for the rhetoric of purpose, result, and evaluation are proposed. In the “internal” opuscule, the rhetorical “axiomatics of Aristotle” (the author’s term) is formulated, extended from the second to the fifth axiomatizations by the author himself. As a result, the rhetorical axiomatics of a) free self-awareness, b) conventional knowledge, c) project activity – the activity of mastering the future, d) its agents: consultants, analysts, experts, implementers and managers-administrators, e) types of project communication, was obtained. A rhetorical definition of the term “project” is introduced.The Epilogue offers rhetorical definitions of management as powerful communication regarding personal mastery of the future and power as the exercise of the right to manage.