Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ws8qp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T07:07:43.541Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Democratic argumentation: rhetoric and imagination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Aletta J. Norval
Affiliation:
University of Essex
Get access

Summary

In extreme cases we run up against the limits of our understanding, and the interpretations which we use in vain to solve difficult problems come to a standstill. But they become fluid again when familiar facts are seen in a different light in a new vocabulary, so that fixated problems can be put in a new and more fruitful way.

Only ingenium is able to grasp [coligere] the relationship between things in a concrete situation in order to determine their meaning. This capacity has an ‘inventive’ character, since it attains an insight without merely bringing out what is present in the premises as reason does in a logical derivation. Ingenium reveals something ‘new’ [ingenio … ad res novas proclives], something ‘unexpected’ and ‘astonishing’ by uncovering the ‘similar in the unsimilar,’ i.e., what cannot be deduced rationally.

The force of argument

If there is one of Habermas' expressions set to solicit the agreement of virtually all theorists of democracy it is probably that of the ‘force of the better argument’. There seem to be no plausible grounds upon which one could reasonably disagree with the sentiment that the authority of the better argument should carry the day. Aiming to secure the rational character of motivation, Habermas suggests that ‘the unforced force of the better argument’ should, under idealized conditions, determine the position one takes in a debate.

Type
Chapter
Information
Aversive Democracy
Inheritance and Originality in the Democratic Tradition
, pp. 56 - 104
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×