Sentir en commun. Une approche rhétorique de la sociabilité

This paper is an inquiry on the relationship between the human ability to share others’ feelings thanks to a mechanism of simulation and one of the functions of rhetoric: maintaining social cohesion through epideictic speeches. As a starting point of this inquiry, we go back to Aristotle’s concept of synaesthesia (from the ancient Greek syn =together and aisthesis =sensation). We then clarify the extent to which this concept can be used to provide a naturalistic account of the feeling of concord that the orator intends to create through praise and blame