Rhetoric and history of political thought in Quentin Skinner

Abstract

This article aims to show that the English historian Quentin Skinner mobilizes in his methodology of the History of Political Thought, the question of rhetoric in the analysis of texts and utterances made by agents. Skinner analyzes the debate over the notion of rhetoric from the use that classical Roman authors, such as Cicero, as well as authors of the English Renaissance about ars rhetorica. This article aims to point out that in its methodology, Skinner gives an important role to human agency and focuses its analysis on rhetorical disputes over concepts in which the authors of texts or discourses were involved.