Assumable plausibilities: Rhetoric as a doxastic technique of probability

From the perspective of rhetorical theory, knowledge is primarily the result of a communicative dynamic of asserting and contesting claims to validity according to a range of normative criteria. This dynamic unfolds within a heterogeneous plurality of language games. Jean-François Lyotard characterizes this condition as a form of “general agonistics,” drawing on both philosophical and sophistic traditions. Against the backdrop of this general agonistics and Hans Blumenberg’s interpretation of Edmund Husserl’s theory of the lifeworld (Lebenswelt), the concept of doxa is examined and reconstructed as a fundamental rhetorical category for understanding the formation and justification of knowledge. Doxai emerge as plausibility potentials that can be assumed in concrete conflicts and serve as the basis for determining criteria of validity capable of communicatively addressing the conflict at hand. This becomes especially crucial in situations where validity conflicts cannot be resolved by reference to the normative frameworks of a single language game.