We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Hume on the Psychology of Public Persuasion.
- Authors
RADCLIFFE, ELIZABETH S.
- Abstract
Political figures engage rhetoric and exalted speech to excite the imagination, stir up the emotions, and prompt their listeners to embrace and act on an ideological perspective. However, there is more to excellent public oratory than eloquence. Rational persuasion is also a key component, emphasizing facts, evidence, and reasoning. Hume acknowledges that rational persuasion alone is not terribly effective in the public arena. His corpus contains many references to eloquence. Dispassionate delivery of evidence does not have the psychological impact of eloquent delivery. What explains the difference? My aim in this paper is to use Hume's theory of belief and "the feeling of conviction" to explain his analysis of effective oratory. Furthermore, I point to the abuses of eloquence in the political arena. Given these abuses, I ask why Hume considers eloquence a virtue. Although eloquence is immediately agreeable to us (one category of virtue for Hume), it can have detrimental, even deadly, consequences. Does this make it vicious in certain cases, since it has disutility, and given that usefulness to the public is another category of virtue for Hume? I suggest that skilled and elegant oratory is pleasing, but such oratory, when used for inhumane ends, could undermine the pleasure of the oratory experience itself.
- Subjects
PERSUASION (Psychology); PSYCHOLOGICAL factors; ORATORY; IMAGINATION; PLEASURE
- Publication
Cosmos + Taxis, 2023, Vol 12, Issue 1/2, p32
- ISSN
2291-5079
- Publication type
Article