Carlo Michelstaedter: Persuasion and Rhetoric

Carlo Michelstaedter’s Persuasion and Rhetoric (1910) is one of the best examples of what Massimo Cacciari calls the early twentieth century “metaphysics of youth.” Persuasion and Rhetoric is the result of Michelstaedter’s academic investigation on the concepts of “persuasion” and “rhetoric” in Plato and Aristotle. Michelstaedter saw in Plato’s corpus the gradual abandonment of Parmenidean “being” and Socrates’ dialogical philosophy. He reinterpreted the notions of “persuasion” and “rhetoric” as terms of a radical dichotomy, using them to represent two opposed ontological modalities, epistemological attitudes, and existential alternatives. If “rhetoric” comprehends language, institutional knowledge, and all manifestations of empirical life, then “persuasion” is defined as the unity of the individual with Parmenidean being. Persuasion is an impossible choice: “lifeless life.” Being a decisive alternative to rhetoric, persuasion – much like Platonic mania – can neither be articulated nor communicated. Nevertheless, Michelstaedter speaks, aware of his inevitable failure: he will not persuade anyone. INDEX WORDS: Michelstaedter, Cacciari, Lukács, Wittgenstein, Parmenides, Plato, Socrates, Persuasion, Rhetoric, Dialectic, Aporia. CARLO MICHELSTAEDTER: PERSUASION AND RHETORIC