Speech in Pursuit of Silence

Robin Reames

doi:10.5325/philrhet.55.1.0032

Philosophy & Rhetoric Apr 2022

Speech in Pursuit of Silence

Robin Reames University of Illinois Chicago

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the West’s Will to Know and its attendant rhetorical forms, speech has been related to silence in primarily three ways. In rhetoric and dialectic, speech pursues speech; in rhetorical education, silence pursues speech; and in sacred, ascetic rhetoric, silence pursues silence. These three relations of speech to silence as a form of knowledge in the Western rhetorical tradition leave a fourth untraversed. Yet to be explored is speech in pursuit of silence. This essay turns to the Buddhist tradition of rhetoric and dialectic to identify a form of knowledge where speech—negation—pursues silence. I then trace the same model of negatory speech in pursuit of silence in the long-repressed practice of sophistic antilogos.

Journal: Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published: 2022-04-01
DOI: 10.5325/philrhet.55.1.0032
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Open Access: Closed
Topics: classical rhetoric rhetorical criticism
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Speech in Pursuit of Silence

Abstract

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References (8)

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