Political rhetoric and its relationship to context:a new theory of the rhetorical situation, the rhetorical and the political

摘要

Political rhetoric is underpinned by its relationship to context. Scholars have struggled to articulate this relationship by relying upon an ontological perspective of rhetoric and situation. This paper utilizes a new, problematological philosophy of rhetoric in context that overcomes these limitations. This approach employs a logic of question and answer which articulates the contingency of rhetoric as well as the structuring effects of context, conceived as social distance. This paper makes three conceptual innovations; philosophically redefining the rhetorical situation via a social problematology; developing a relational conception of situation; and originating a rhetorical theory of situatedness.