Verbal Language – a Sign of Political Power in the Political Arena
Verbal Language – a Sign of Political Power in the Political Arena

Summary/Abstract: Starting with the Greek polis we notice an extraordinary preeminence of the language over the other instruments of the power. Language becomes the political instrument by excellence, the key of any authority in the state, the means of dominating the other. This power of the language (of which the Greek made a deity Peitho, the persuasion power) reminds of the power of the words and of the formulas in certain religious rituals. The word is no longer in this case a ritualistic word, an incantatory formula, but a place for debate, for discussion, for argumentation. We basically witness a desacralisation of the word meant, on the politics field, to win, to mould, to incite, to subdue. The word is expressed now in the discourse, it is moulded according to the necessities of the antithetic demonstration, being subdued to the oratorical art. Between politics and logos there is a relationship of reciprocity, the political art being essentially an art of the language, and the language in its turn gets a conscience of its own self, of the rules, of its efficiency through the political function.

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