Kantçı Sonsuz İlerleme Kavramı ve Retorik İlişkisi

Öz

Bu çalışma, Kant’ın düşüncesinde retoriğin, onu bastırmaya yönelik ilkesel çabasına rağmen nasıl ısrarla var olmaya devam ettiğini, “sonsuz ilerleme” kavramına dayanarak açıklamayı amaçlamaktadır. Kant için retorik, teorik aklın ilerleme sürecinde kendisini bir araca dönüştürdüğü yanılgıları ve aldanıları ifade etmektedir. Bununla birlikte teorik aklın özgürleşmeye yönelik hareketi hala retorik etkilere bağlı kalsa da, kendi amacına dair yetkin bir kavrayışa ulaşma potansiyeli barındırmaktadır. Akıl, kendi sınırlarını tayin ederek hem kendi araçsallaştırılmasına hem de tutkulara dayalı manipülatif kullanımına karşı eleştirel bir yeti kazanabilir. Kant’a göre akıl pratik kullanımında, retorik ve araçsallaştırıcı etkilerden bağımsız olarak amaçlarını belirleme ve meşrulaştırma yetkisini ortaya koyar. Kant için bu gayelere doğru ahlaki ilerleme, tamamlanmış bir durum değil, pratik aklın özgürlüğüne dayanan sonsuz bir ödevdir. Çünkü insanlığın tarihsel amaçsallığı bilgi nesnesi hâline getirilemez, gelecek zorunlu olarak açıktır. Kant bir gerilimle karşı karşıyadır: Bir yandan tutkulara hitap eden ve özerkliği tehdit eden ikna edici retoriği bastırmaya çalışır; öte yandan ahlaki özne—açık bir gelecek karşısında—ahlaki yönelimini sürdürmek için retoriğe ihtiyaç duyar. Bu gereksinim, iki karşıt riske yanıt verir: Sonsuz ödev trajik bir yük hâline gelebilir veya özne, mevcut teorik ve kurumsal başarılarına dayanarak kendi ahlakına aşırı güven geliştirebilir. Böylece retorik, hem bir tehdit hem de umut, özeleştiri ve açık gelecekte ahlaki rehberliği sürdüren gerekli bir kamusal konuşma biçimi olarak işlev görür.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Sonsuz İlerleme
• En iyi Rejim
• Retorik
• En Yüksek İyilik
• Postülalar
• Spontanlık

The Relationship Between the Kantian Concept of Infinite Progress and Rhetoric

Öz

This study aims to account for the persistence of rhetoric in Kant’s thought, despite his principled effort to repress it, by appealing to the concept of “infinite progress.” For Kant, rhetoric denotes the illusions and deceptions in which theoretical reason becomes a mere instrument in its drive for advancement. Nevertheless, although the freedom-oriented movement of theoretical reason remains dependent on rhetorical effects, it still contains the potential to arrive at an adequate understanding of its own ends. By determining its own limits, reason can acquire a critical capacity both against its own instrumentalization and against its manipulative use grounded in the passions. For Kant, in its practical employment, reason reveals the authority to determine and justify its ends independently of rhetorical and instrumentalizing influences. Moral progress toward these ends is not a completed state but an infinite task grounded in the freedom of practical reason. Since the historical purposiveness of humanity cannot be made into an object of knowledge, the future is necessarily open. Kant faces a tension: while he seeks to suppress rhetoric as a persuasive threat to autonomy, the moral subject—facing an open future—requires it to maintain its moral direction. This need responds to two contrasting risks: that infinite duty may become an tragic burden, or that the subject may grow overconfident in its morality. Rhetoric thus functions both as a threat and as a necessary form of public speech that preserves hope, self-critique, and moral guidance in an open future.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Infinite Progress
• Best Regime
• Rhetorics
• Highest Good
• Postulates
• Spontaneity

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