Abstract Jürgen Habermas supports his transhistorical conception of violence as a form of instrumental reason to be rejected from the ideal polity with a historical narrative that recounts the rejection of Machiavellian and Hobbesian instrumental violence by the Enlightenment philosophes. This article provides a revised narrative, which emphasizes the persistence of a rhetorical conception of violence from Machiavelli's princely violence to a line of Anglo-American republican thinkers who shifted the locus of sovereign rhetorical violence to the people's armed militia. The narrative culminates with Madison's exegesis of the Second Amendment and sketches how this Madisonian conception harmonizes with Habermasian norms and law.

Research Article| September 01 2011 The Prudential Public Sphere David Randall David Randall Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Philosophy & Rhetoric (2011) 44 (3): 205–226. https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.44.3.0205 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation David Randall; The Prudential Public Sphere. Philosophy & Rhetoric 1 September 2011; 44 (3): 205–226. doi: https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.44.3.0205 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectivePenn State University PressPhilosophy & Rhetoric Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © 2011 by The Pennsylvania State University. All rights reserved.2011The Pennsylvania State University Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.