Rhetoric of Science: On the Conceptual Origins of One Oxymoron and the Possibilities to Overcome It

Despite the obviousness of the rhetorical basis of scientific discourse, the idea of the rhetoric of science is one of the most controversial and paradoxical - the combination of "rhetoric of science" is often perceived as an oxymoron. In the article, using hermeneutic reflection, as well as logical and analytical methods developed within the framework of modern epistemology of the humanities, the conceptual sources of this perception are analyzed and the possibilities for overcoming it are identified. The idea is developed according to which the negative attitude to rhetorical elements in scientific reflection has an ancient history, rooted in various layers of the philosophical theoretical array. Particular attention is paid to the objectivist criticism of semantic ambiguity, its connection with the negative philosophical assessment of rhetoric and the idea of philosophical reform of natural language is traced. It is shown that one of the reasons for the philosophical criticism of rhetoric is the introduction of subjectivity and ambiguity into scientific research - epistemic elements that do not fit into the framework of objectivist scientific idealization. The origins of this epistemological optics are found in ancient philosophical thought — in the dispute between the Socratic-Platonic and rhetorical-sophistic traditions of understanding truth and the role of the connection between language and thinking in achieving it. An analysis of the conceptual foundations of philosophical criticism of eloquence is carried out, as a result of which it is concluded that rhetoric, acting as an instrument of communicative practices, becomes hostage to the confrontation of philosophy and politics as intellectual foundations of the existing order of things. The author associates the possibilities of overcoming the perception of the rhetoric of science as an oxymoron with the importance of considering the interaction of the epistemological and epistemic levels of scientific knowledge and explicating its (interaction) rhetorical design.