Political Theory between Philosophy and Rhetoric by Giuseppe Ballacci

Author:Giuseppe Ballacci
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, London

There is, finally, a third motive that justifies the employment of such a technique and that we could define also as ‘pedagogical’, but in a different manner. Philosophy is a hard and challenging endeavour. A technique of writing that, hiding its “treasures” to the majority, lets them be glimpsed by the few and thus encourages them to undertake the “very long, never easy, but always pleasant work” of philosophy by exciting their curiosity.84 In the same way, this technique can serve also a method to select the few able to philosophize.85

Each of these three motivations depend, to different degrees, on the premise that between philosophy and politics, or between the philosopher and society, there is an intrinsic tension. In the first case (prosecution), the tension between politics and philosophy is not insurmountable in principle. If society can be enlightened and persuaded to accept philosophy, as the Moderns think, then it will be no more necessary for the philosopher to use that art of writing. In the second case, instead, the tension is stronger since it is based on an understanding that truth is always dangerous for society at large. In this case thus the need of this art of writing is stronger.86 Finally, in the last case, this tension is expressed in the form of an elitist view that divides society in two groups—the many and the few—and which considers necessary a form of benevolent manipulation to initiate the latter to philosophical life and isolate them from the seductions of mundane life. This in turn implies that, in the first case, the tension cannot be expected to disappear altogether because society can never fully understand philosophy; it can never completely abandon conventionalism. Instead of a straightforward “prosecution” then we will have the more typical form of “ostracism” against those who continuously put in question the conventional truths, the truths of the majority.87

We are allowed therefore to consider this rhetorical technique as one, even if it is one that assumes different forms and degrees. Its general objective is to make philosophy and politics as much as possible compatible and to conciliate the erotic, divinely maniac, and thus imprudent, search for truth by the philosopher, with the prudent behaviour society requires. It is clearly the same kind of rhetoric that we saw in Plato and that Strauss labels as “Socratic rhetoric” (even if Socrates is represented by Xenophon rather than Plato): Socratic rhetoric is meant to be an indispensable instrument of philosophy. Its purpose is to lead potential philosophers to philosophy both by training them and by liberating them of the charms which obstruct the philosophic effort, as well as to prevent the access to philosophy of those who are not fit for it. Socratic rhetoric is emphatically just. It is animated by the spirit of social responsibility. It is based on the premise that there is a disproportion between the intransigent quest for truth and the requirements of society, or that not all truths are always harmless. Society will always try to tyrannize thought.

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