Word of science. The rhetoric of scientific communication

Abstract

Rhetoric has always been linked to markets or forums, to social interaction, to the verbal weapons of debate and the activation of emotions and the manipulation of others. Its history is therefore impure, since it cannot be removed from historic and social context or from the interests of the parties. Science, on the other hand – especially Science with a capital letter – aspires to the purity of objective and aseptic knowledge, conveyed with transparent language. It could even rise as a proud Babel over the dispute, become a sort of successor to religion as dispenser of security.