Lingua ac Communitas, 2010, Volumin 20

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Constructionist Account Of Natural Language Communication In Aristotle’s Rhetoric
(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2010) Domaradzki, Mikołaj
While Aristotle’s metaphysics is predominantly known for its essentialism and realism, the philosopher’s rhetoric appears to challenge some of the ontological and epistemological assumptions of the fact-based approach to reality that pervade the entire Corpus Aristotelicum. The present paper Constructionist Account Of Na tural La nguage Comm unication… argues that the presence of certain “constructionist” intuitions in Aristotle’s Rhetoric results from the philosopher’s premonition that language performs various communicative functions and that, consequently, the so called “representational” can only be seen as one of them. When proposing an interpretation of those passages in which Aristotle alludes to the possibility of constructing truth and facts rather than merely presenting them, the article suggests that Aristotle’s tripartition of rhetoric be read as an anticipation of Karl Bühler’s model of language as organon, since both thinkers regard language as more than just a tool for describing reality or expressing one’s thoughts. Consequently, Aristotle’s Rhetoric departs from the ideal of truth mirroring the reality, for the philosopher is aware of the performative aspects of natural language communication.