Philosophy and Rhetoric

The current chasm in Academia between Philosophy and Political Science can only guarantee that Philosophy of Language will continue to lose sight of its original mission. The traditional tracing of the topic to Plato's Cratylus misses his more general treatment of it. His entire body of work stands as a challenge to Rhetoric, i. e. Speech that aims to persuade. Rhetoric is essentially monological, the limitations of which are exposed by Plato's confronting Rhetoricians with the master dialogician, Socrates. It is debatable whether or not these dialogues arrive at conclusive Truth, but it is less arguable that Rhetoricians are out of their depth in them. Contemporary Philosophy of Language, with its micro-analyses for the most part completely oblivious to the Political role of Speech, has lost sight of Philosophy's advocacy of Truth in the public arena. It is thus inadequate to the distinction between Rhetoric, which falls short of respecting the Individuality of others, and, e. g. Dialogue and Pedagogy, which are more Evolved Speech, both personally and Politically.