Lincoln at the Edge of the Enlightenment: Reason, Communication, and American Political Culture
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This essay examines Lincolon’s speeches and writings under the rubric of Habermas’s theory of communicative action, situating them in the tradition of Enlightenment thought, mapping out the transformation of their rhetorical features over time, and finally reevaluating their viability as an Enlightenment discourse. The Enlightenment spirit of reason and rational communication enable Lincoln to navigate the political crisis of his age and empower him to sustain and renew the political ideal of the Founding Fathers. Lincolnian discourse is punctuated by what one might call the Habermasian moment, a moment of rational communication in opposition to rhetorical distortion and linguistic confusion. Lincolnian discourse pursues communal consensus on the basis of Enlightenment rationality. The cataclysmatic political turmoil of American history brings about significant changes in Lincolnian discourse: his growing caution against the abuse of language, his skepticism of rational communication, his perception of and efforts to resolve the gap between words and action, the shift of his mode of address from logical argumentation into emotional appeal, the change from quotative interpretation to creative legislation, the tonal shift in his language from filiopiety to patricide, and finally the transition from his belief in human reason to his recourse to divine will. Despite transformative revisions in his discourse, however, Lincoln sustains his belief in reason and rational communication whose echoes are still heard in his late speeches and writings. It is this resonance that enables us to locate him at the edge of the Enlightenment.
Abstract
This essay examines Lincolon’s speeches and writings under the rubric of Habermas’s theory of communicative action, situating them in the tradition of Enlightenment thought, mapping out the transformation of their rhetorical features over time, and finally reevaluating their viability as an Enlightenment discourse. The Enlightenment spirit of reason and rational communication enable Lincoln to navigate the political crisis of his age and empower him to sustain and renew the political ideal of the Founding Fathers. Lincolnian discourse is punctuated by what one might call the Habermasian moment, a moment of rational communication in opposition to rhetorical distortion and linguistic confusion. Lincolnian discourse pursues communal consensus on the basis of Enlightenment rationality. The cataclysmatic political turmoil of American history brings about significant changes in Lincolnian discourse: his growing caution against the abuse of language, his skepticism of rational communication, his perception of and efforts to resolve the gap between words and action, the shift of his mode of address from logical argumentation into emotional appeal, the change from quotative interpretation to creative legislation, the tonal shift in his language from filiopiety to patricide, and finally the transition from his belief in human reason to his recourse to divine will. Despite transformative revisions in his discourse, however, Lincoln sustains his belief in reason and rational communication whose echoes are still heard in his late speeches and writings. It is this resonance that enables us to locate him at the edge of the Enlightenment.
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