Erystyka i etyka

The presented research proposition concerns the issue of ethics of eristic. Attention is given to the differences between the classical concept of eristic and the contemporary suggestions for its defi nition. Conditions of ethical participation in a dispute, based on the rhetoric ethos of the speaker, are formulated. Eristic communication behaviours are considered here unethical when the speaker does not assume responsibility for the changes caused by his or her utterance in a rhetoric situation, that is also when he or she participates in the dispute as an anonymous person. Attention is also drawn to the mechanism of penetrating eristic argumentation from individual disputes to the area of the so-called public debate. The attitude to eristic presented in the literature regarding legal rhetoric and an utterance of a politician about manners of participating in a dispute are demonstrated. The latter encourages the formulation of a postulate that responsibility for the word be one of signifi cant categories for evaluating a politician.