When language was a scientific tool : rhetoric as a means of knowledge

Abstract

It is widely recognised that Jesuits made rhetoric the pillar of their educational programme. While this is undeniable, too often Jesuits have been criticised for the abuse of this art (understood as the formal veil that, under the appearance of the adhesion to the humanist canon, conceals the profession of adherence to the most rigid ecclesiastical tradition). In our chapter, while the formal function of the rhetoric in the textual production is not denied, we demonstrate that from the 14th to the 17th century rhetoric was mainly the form by means of which the rationality and coherence of thought was displayed in the written form. Analogously, rhetoric was considered, first of all, a form of translation. With particular reference to Jesuits, both Ciprian Soarez and Emanuele Tesauro construe rhetoric as the supreme means of knowledge rather than a superfluous embellishment of the speech. As a matter of fact, the eloquence renders passible the super-sensible by the means of a translation of the res into the verbum. For this reason, bringing out the pragmatic attitude of rhetoric in contrast with the abstractions of the formal logic of the nominalists, the two Jesuits align themselves to the humanist condemnation for the silent and idle philosophy of the nominalists.