A Kantian rhetoric of sincerity

Immanuel Kant might be the last person to whom philosophers would turn to study a rhetoric of sincerity. Nevertheless, I will seek to articulate “Kantian” rhetoric as my interpretation of Kant’s art of philosophical persuasion. I will also consider the inherent problem, which Western philosophers have had to face, in linking rhetoric and its properties to sincerity as truthfulness. ¹ To begin, I turn briefly to Aristotle who is better known for articulating a positive and lasting sense of philosophical rhetoric. Aristotle will, then, inform what is said about both rhetoric and politics in “A Kantian Rhetoric of Sincerity.”