Advances in the History of Rhetoric Sep 2016

In Tradition of Speaking Fearlessly: Locating a Rhetoric of Whistleblowing in the Parrhēsiastic Dialectic

Alan Chu Kent State University at Stark

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay examines how the dialectic over the presence of rhetoric in Michel Foucault’s catalog of truth telling in ancient Greek and Roman texts informs a separate but similar dialectic over the relationship between parrhēsia and contemporary whistleblowing. I posit that the argumentation justifying the practice of government and military whistleblowing used by Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning parallels the dispute over rhetoric’s place in parrhēsia. This essay plots out how the arguments for or against the presence of rhetoric in parrhēsia routinely manifests at specific junctures in the whistleblowing timeline, indicating how the dialectic of parrhēsia naturally leads to a rhetoric of whistleblowing.

Journal
Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Published
2016-09-01
DOI
10.1080/15362426.2016.1232206
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Topics
rhetorical criticism argument
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Riddick (2022)
    Students’ Social Media Disclosures: Reconsidering the Rhetorics of Whistleblowing
    Rhetoric Review

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Show all 41 →
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CrossRef global citation count: 3 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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