Retoryka jak narzędzie badania naszych myśli: czym jest téchne rhetoriké?
Rhetoric as a Tool for Studying Our Thoughts: What is Téchne Rhetoriké?

Author(s): Jakub Z. Lichański
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Applied Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Rhetoric;language;linguistics;methodology of sciences;M.F. Quintilianus;W.C. Booth;I. Kant;R.E. Volkmann;W. Windelband;der Wiener Kreis.
Summary/Abstract: Rhetoric is not only a methodology of the humanities; it is the most important science given to us by ancient philosophers. It defines the methods of argumentation from the uncertain, the theory of texts, but more importantly – it is a tool for organizing our thoughts and preparing works which aim for persuasion – getting the knowledge, not the opinion (Kant). However, as we know, the language we use is extremely unreliable. Plato and Aristotle warned us against that. At the same time, they built the foundations of techne rhetorike, which systemic shape we owe to Quintilianus. Rhetoric, as both – ancient and modern scholars have claimed, is not a grammar dictionary; it is rather an analogue of logic (Volkmann). As Wilhelm Windelband says: “thanks to grammar and rhetoric we have learned the correct rules of thinking”. The author draws not only from the tradition of research on rhetoric, but also from language theory – mainly referring to the tradition of the Viennese Circle (Der Wiener Kreis). As far as the achievements of contemporary linguistics and contemporary research on the philosophical foundations of language research are taken into account – the perspective set by both Immanuel Kant and researchers from the Der Wiener Kreis circle is dominant here. The purpose of this study is not only to remind Windelbad’s thesis, but also to prove it wholistically.

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