Mobilidade discursiva: considerações sobre a leitura heideggeriana da Retórica de Aristóteles

Abstract

This work deals with two distinct modes of interpretation of Aristotle's Rhetoric. One of the readings investigated starts from the studies of the philosopher Martin Heidegger, focusing on his 1924 lecture, which was later published under the name Grundbegriffe der aristotelischen Philosophie (The fundamental concepts of Aristotle's philosophy). The author brings relevant and original contributions on the subject, taking the theme of rhetoric to a divergent ontological description of the conceptual appropriation given by tradition. Rhetoric is shown as belonging to logos, the fundamental concepts of this activity are investigated in the light of the transparency of the ways of being through which saying is announced. Discourse is described by Heidegger as the precedence of a hermeneutic horizon that transcends the speaker, consisting of previous opinions that support the unfolding of what is said. A specific speech situation, in which the speaker says something to a specific audience, is always rooted in a sense of being shared. This comprehensive horizon must be cultivated by the speaker so that the activity of rhetoric gains mobility, precisely in the appeal to opinions that the discursive future is forwarded. The emphasis on dynamis in Heidegger's reading emphasizes the possibilities of rhetorical saying, based on the mobilization of opinions that support a specific situation. The adequate attention of the speaker and the understanding of his surroundings is the condition of possibility for the encounter of the incoming discourse. Another type of interpretation starts from the commitment that rhetoric has with techne. Thus, the explanation of “what techne is” is necessary to justify how the respective argumentative resources described in Rhetoric are articulated. Aristotle indicates that rhetoric can be mediated through a method through which the means of persuasion can be chained together. The evidence based on logos, pathos and ethos is investigated as means directed to ends, which must be studied by the speaker so that the means are properly arranged. As a type of knowledge aimed at rhetorical discourse, techne is founded on Aristotle's metaphysical notion of the four causes. Such causal explanations corroborate an elucidation of the concept of techne. The contingent indications of the being of rhetoric are articulated by the metaphysical justification that gives epistemic integrality to this activity. Although these two types of interpretation of rhetoric are antagonistic in many points, they should not be mutually exclusive; a rhetorical ontology applied by Heidegger is pointed out as primary to the theorizing of discourse based on a metaphysical foundation of techne. The belonging of rhetoric to habitual discourse is investigated by Heidegger as the primary and most evident proof in which this phenomenon takes place. Only in a derivative way, marked by a theoretical detachment from the event of discourse, that rhetoric can be interpreted by techne. Both the recontextualization of its emergency conditions and the laying of its foundations are the key to a more embracing understanding of rhetoric.