Deliberation, Phronesis, and Authenticity: Heidegger's Early Conception of Rhetoric

Interest in the writings of existentialist philosopher Martin Heidegger has been on the rise in the field of rhetoric (Scult 199; D. Smith 2003). Several essays have been published over the last few years exploring the importance Heidegger attributes to rhetoric, especially in his major treatise, Being and Time (Hyde 1994; Ramsey 1993). These articles address the relationship of rhetoric to what Heidegger labels as "the they," a form of mass culture which embraces societal norms in a nonreflective manner. Given that Heidegger associates speech or Rede with the "gossip" and "idle talk" used by the they, one must question whether rhetoric can play any positive role in fostering what Heidegger defines as an authentic existence: a life conducted in accordance with one's own possibilities.

Hyde and Smith address this issue in their piece: "Aristotle and Heidegger on Emotion and Rhetoric." They argue that rhetoric does not lead the human being—or in Heidegger's terms, "Dasein"—toward an authentic existence. Rather "the community of the 'they' and rhetoric go hand in hand" (1992, 92). By focusing on the everyday activities of the they, "rhetoric directs people to a temporal and spatial realm where their authenticity will be forsaken and forgotten" (92). Rhetoric is, thus, inextricably connected to those gossiping modes of conversation which embed Dasein within its inauthentic existence. Hyde, however, later qualifies this conclusion in the essay "The Call of Conscience: Heidegger and the Question of Rhetoric" (Hyde 1994). Here he finds that rhetoric has the potential to produce a "call of conscience" which "leaps forth and liberates" others as a way of leading them toward an authentic existence (see Heidegger 1962, 164, 344). Rhetoric, used by an authentic Dasein who is "'communicating' and 'struggling' with others, can bring about a 'modification' of our publicness'" (Hyde 1994, 382). In doing so, rhetoric "can sound a call that interprets the complacency of our everyday world of common sense and common praxis and thereby summons us to choose, to act, and perhaps to change our lives for the 'better'" (382).

Given these apparently contradictory interpretations, a reexamination of the role rhetoric can play in leading Dasein toward its own most authentic possibilities is warranted. In pursuing this goal, this essay will begin by defining Heidegger's terminology as he theorizes on the nature of rhetoric and deliberation, and on the relationship rhetoric has to Dasein's authenticity. Specifically, this essay will: (1) clarify Heidegger's use of "the they" and "authenticity"; (2) examine Heidegger's discussion of rhetoric as a guide to leading the soul; (3) explicate Heidegger's use of deliberation [βουλεεσθαι] and phronesis [φρνησις]; and, finally, (4) address the relationship of rhetoric and authenticity by examining Heidegger's translation of φρνησις in Being and Time as "resoluteness." This essay will conclude by assessing the salience Heidegger's work can have on contemporary issues in communication.

I. The Society of the They and Dasein's Authenticity

The they or das Man are terms that Heidegger uses in Being and Time to describe the social forces which dominate public opinion. Dreyfus translates this term as "the one" in order to reflect the faceless nature of this mass culture (1991, 144). This anonymous community holds forth prescriptive norms which determine what "one" should do. Heidegger describes this as the "dictatorship of the 'They'" which serves to drain away individuality: "we take pleasure and enjoy ourselves as they take pleasure; we read, see, and judge about literature and art as they see and judge" (1962, 164). The they, in essence, functions as a social conscience which informs its members of the proper and improper mode of living. It is not controlled by any specific group of individuals, but instead is a "'nobody' to whom every Dasein has already surrendered itself in Being-amongst-one-other" (166). This nobody is a social composite which "prescribes the kind of Being of everydayness" or the world within which each undifferentiated Dasein exists (164). The they fosters an averageness, a leveling down, which reduces the choices of all humans who live within its community (212). Heidegger argues that Dasein, by living as a...