Meliora: a podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute
Welcome to the Green Gown Award winning Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability and Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton!
This podcast explores the greatest and most wicked problem that is sustainability, whilst looking at how we are collectively addressing this critical global challenge.
Sustainability needs to be addressed by understanding how the economy, society, culture, politics and environment intersect, and this is the focus that informs each episode of the Meliora podcast.
In each episode, host Professor Simon Kemp and guest hosts are joined by a variety of guests, including academics, students, staff, researchers, alumni, community groups and business leaders.
The aim of the podcast is to shine a light on the vast range of topics surrounding sustainability and to allow listeners to learn about the critical challenges we face, as well as how they can be part of the solution. We also ensure our fantastic students have the opportunity to share their brilliant work with the world.
Podcast host: Professor Simon Kemp, Deputy Director of the Sustainability & Resilience Institute, University of Southampton
Podcast editors: Jack Dinham, Ellie Howell, Mya Harvey, Lily Killner, Sophie Green, Libby Kale, School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton
Podcast communications: Tyler Domone-Hollands, Hannah Parish, Alexander Ayerst, Maya Stevens, University of Southampton
Please do get in touch to discuss this podcast and any of the issues we raise by emailing sri@soton.ac.uk
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Meliora: a podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute
Rosie Watson: What, if anything, is epistemically criticisable about rhetoric, and when might the use of rhetoric be permissible?
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Rosie Watson, BA Philosophy, joins us to discuss her research project “What, if anything, is epistemically criticisable about rhetoric, and when might the use of rhetoric be permissible?”
Rhetoric has frequently been treated as epistemically suspect insofar as it appears oriented towards persuasion rather than truth. Despite this concern, there is a notable lacuna in the literature regarding how rhetoric itself should be defined and evaluated as an epistemic practice. Drawing on Austinian distinctions, I argue that rhetoric can be understood as a mode of assertion distinguished by its perlocutionary aim and is therefore prima facie governed by epistemic norms constitutive of assertion. Rhetoric does not necessarily violate such norms; instead, its distinctive feature is that it can obscure the justification of what is asserted. To clarify this, I develop an evaluation in terms of attitudinal fittingness and attributive goodness. It is the obfuscation of justification by stylistic means that prevents formation of fitting belief, which renders rhetoric epistemically criticisable. I then go on to evaluate when rhetoric might be permissible and address the questions this raises about the commensurability of political and epistemic norms. I conclude that, provisionally, epistemic evaluation of rhetoric can be used to determine its permissibility until a fuller account is developed.
Papers referenced if you would like to learn more::
Ruth Chang’s TED Talk: https://youtu.be/8GQZuzIdeQQ?si=_PJFdlueZNple7Mf
R. McKenna’s paper on Sophistry on Steroids: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00146-025-02624-z
J. D’Ambrosio paper on Manipulative Speech: https://academic.oup.com/monist/article/109/1/61/8444471?login=false
Episode guest: Rosie Watson, BA Philosophy
Episode host: Prof Simon Kemp
Episode producer and editor: Ellie Howell
The Meliora Podcast Student Research Symposium is part of the 2026 Student Takeover Season where we celebrate the fantastic sustainability research work of our Undergraduate Students.