Dialogue in View of Human Caring

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the elements for an anthropology of dialogue that can be offered through an anthropological deepening of rhetoric. From the attention that is due to the interlocutor as a person, we obtain—in the light of both the philosophy of care and the theory of politeness—a particular approach to the notion of service. This notion, made ambiguous by our modern sensitivity, receives a new reading when it is interpreted in the sense of ‗care‘. In recalling the ancient roots of the notion of person, it is revealing how much the recent relational sociology offers to conceive dialogue as a relational good, a human good that only can be made together. The conditions for reaching this specific approach are recent, even if the fundamental notions (relation, person, service, care) are rather old.