A Normative Pragmatic Theory of Exhorting

Abstract

We submit a normative pragmatic theory of exhorting-an account of conceptually necessary and potentially efficacious components of a coherent strategy for securing a sympathetic hearing for efforts to urge and inspire addressees to act on high-minded principles. Based on a Gricean analysis of utterance-meaning, we argue that the concept of exhorting comprises making statements openly urging addressees to perform some high-minded, principled course of action; openly intending to inspire addressees to act on the principles; and intending that addressees' recognition of the intentions to urge and inspire creates reasons for addressees to grant a sympathetic hearing to what the speaker has to say. We show that the theory accounts for the design of Abraham Lincoln's Cooper Union address. By doing so we add to the inventory of reasons why social actors make arguments, continue a line of research showing the relationship of arguing to master speech acts, and show that making arguments can be an effective strategy for inspiring principled action.

Two Views of Speech Acts: Analysis and Implications for Argumentation Theory

“…The same may also be said of PROPOSING (Kauffeld 1998), PRAISING and ADVISING (Kauffeld 1999), and of a large array of illocutionary acts [including TESTIFYING (Kauffeld and Fields 2005) and EXHORTING (Kauffeld and Innocenti 2018). Each is constituted and individuated by the contours of the intentions with which the speaker acts and thus also the commitments she undertakes and the practical rationale for a response she provides to her addressee.…”