Die Rhetorik (in) der Phänomenologie

Abstract

Abstract Dedicated to the interrelation between philosophy and rhetoric, this article focuses on the rhetoric of philosophy, respectively a rhetoric in the service of philosophy. Here, rhetoric is not understood as a mere art of eloquence or sophistry. Rather, the term defines: first, speech and persuasion as a spontaneous, pre-theoretical and communicative ability of humans, second, the regular and systematic use of this ability, and, finally, the technique of persuasion itself. In this article, special attention is paid to the rhetorical means that play a central role in the constitution and assertion of science and theory. In particular, the article investigates the rhetoric of phenomenology as conception and as use of language in the aversion of rhetoric in Edmund Husserl’s Logische Untersuchungen and in Heidegger’s affinity for rhetoric in Sein und Zeit. Initially, it outlines the respective conceptions of language in Husserl and Heidegger and scrutinizes their mutual influences in order to reconstruct the network of transfer, continuation, and repercussion that characterizes the relation between both authors. In a second step, it focuses on Heidegger’s use of language.