ÖZP 2010/2  S.157-169

Dirk Jörke

Aristotle?s Rhetoric: A Manual for the Politics of Emotion

Keywords: Aristotle, deliberative democracy, rhetoric, emotions, demagogy

Following Aristotle?s Rhetoric this article deals with the relation between deliberative and emotional aspects of political decision making. Unlike some recent articles about the relation between Aristotle and deliberative democracy it is shown that he is not arguing for a rational and unemotional way of political decision making. On the contrary, he is even comfortable with unconstrained rhetoric. To a certain degree the Rhetoric could be read as a manual for demagogues. In the last part, it is argued that Aristotle highlights the noncognitive and emotional features of deliberative procedures and is thereby able to correct one of the most serious shortcomings of the theory of deliberative democracy.