L’argumentation rhétorique et le problème de l’auditoire complexe

Abstract

It is a commonplace of argumentation theory that an arguer needs to know her or his audience in order to be persuasive. But beyond arguments directed to oneself or to a single interlocutor, the audiences we address are complex in make-up, reflecting the diversity of our own identities and the different groups to which we belong. How should arguers accommodate such diversity within audiences? Drawing principally from the work of Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, as well as Amartya Sen, this paper explores the ways aspects of identities are chosen by audiences, and how arguers can encourage such choices as a preliminary move to persuasion itself.

Keywords

• audience
• complex audience
• diversity
• identity
• New Rhetoric