Rhetoric in Times of Change: A Philosophical Defense Against Epistemic Reductionisms

This essay examines the enduring relevance of rhetoric in Western intellectual history, particularly during periods of epistemic transition. It argues that rhetoric recurrently emerges as a corrective and mediating force whenever dominant modes of knowledge attempt to monopolize truth. Drawing on Karl Jaspers’ concept of the Axial Age, the study identifies historical moments in which rhetoric reappears as a response to crises of meaning, from the birth of rhetoric in fifth-century BCE Sicily, through Augustine’s reconfiguration of discourse in Late Antiquity, Petrarch’s humanist critique of scholastic dialectics, Vico’s challenge to Cartesian analytic reductionism, and Perelman’s twentieth-century “new rhetoric” as a response to formal logic. In each case, rhetoric does not function as a mere technique of persuasion: it mediates ethical, epistemic, and civic concerns, fostering plurality, dialogue, and interpretive flexibility. The essay aims to show that rhetoric serves as a bridge across disciplines, cultures, and temporal horizons, enabling communication where singular epistemic frameworks fail. By situating rhetoric as both an intellectual and ethical practice, the study underscores its humanistic value in contemporary contexts, particularly amid technological, ecological, and political disruptions. The analysis ultimately defends rhetoric as a civic and philosophical virtue, capable of negotiating uncertainty, cultivating moral responsibility, and sustaining the conditions for shared understanding in transitional and pluralistic societies.