Logos, Ethos, Pathos. Classical Rhetoric Revisited

The main purpose of this paper is to reflect upon the question to what extent contemporary politics is only the “eristic technique” skilled at introducing pathos and instrumentally appealing to logos and ethos. Aristotle’s rhetorical triad-logos, ethos, pathos-makes rhetoric the art of persuasive or honest communication. Applying methods developed by psychoanalysis and in reference to the work of Freud, Lacan, Searle, Laclau, Ranciere and Foucault author reflect on the premises, the shape and the consequences of contemporary sophistic politics. Author is tempted to test the intuition according to which the prototype of a method of communication is catachresis, a figure of speech in which a word or phrase has vastly departed from its traditional, paradigmatic usage.