The Excellence Award at the Fonds Ricoeur's Summer Workshop 2021 - "Ricoeur rhetorique. The Missed Encounter with Chaim Perelman in The Rule of Metaphor"

This paper argues that Ricceur's philosophy operates on the basis of a more expansive conception of rhetoric than it first appears. To show this, I reread The Rule of Metaphor through the "new rhetoric" of Chaim Perelman. First, I survey Ricoeur's understanding of rhetoric in the 1950s and 60s. Second, I examine Ricceur's relation to Perelman within the context of the broader "rhetorical turn" of the 1970s. After examining their respective positions, I argue that Ricoeur fails to appreciate the full significance of Perelman's conception of audience. In doing so, I draw attention to the central role that Ricoeur himself ascribes to the audience or reader in the "work of meaning." I conclude by proposing that the rhetorical triad of logos/ethos/pathos may serve as a conceptual matrix with which the rhetorical aspects of Ricoeur's philosophy can be interpreted.