Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 5-10-2019 The thicE s of Occultic Communication: An Invocation of Joshua Gunn and Sissela Bok James Thomas Begley Jr. Duquesne University Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Part of the Applied Ethics Commons, Epistemology Commons, Philosophy of Language Commons, Rhetoric Commons, and the Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons Recommended Citation Begley, J. T. (2019). The thicE s of Occultic Communication: An Invocation of Joshua Gunn and Sissela Bok (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1758 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. THE ETHICS OF OCCULTIC COMMUNICATION: AN INVOCATION OF JOSHUA GUNN AND SISSELA BOK A Dissertation Submitted to the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By James T. Begley May 2019 Copyright by James T. Begley 2019 THE ETHICS OF OCCULTIC COMMUNICATION AN INVOCATION OF JOSHUA GUNN AND SISSELA BOK By James T. Begley Approved December 14, 2018 ________________________________ ________________________________ Richard H. Thames, Ph.D. Janie M. Fritz, Ph.D. Professor of Communication Professor of Communication (Committee Chair) (Committee Member) ________________________________ Anthony M. Wachs, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Communication (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ James C. Swindal, Ph.D. Ronald C. Arnett Dean, McAnulty College and Graduate Chair, Department of Communication & School of Liberal Arts Rhetorical Studies Professor of Philosophy Professor of Rhetoric iii ABSTRACT THE ETHICS OF OCCULTIC COMMUNICATION AN INVOCATION OF JOSHUA GUNN AND SISSELA BOK By James Thomas Begley May 2019 Dissertation supervised by Richard Thames, Ph.D. Occultic rhetoric, according to Joshua Gunn, is a genre of discourse concerned with the study and practice of secret communications. The strategic sharing of secret messages involves a host of methods and conventions designed for the selective disclosure of hidden knowledge, thus controlling the boundaries of (and accessibility to power between) insider and outsider groups. Occultic rhetoric has its uses in everyday encounters, but the abuse of such manipulative strategies, especially by those in the academy and other positions of power and trust, calls for an ethical response. This dissertation submits occultic rhetoric to moral investigation by incorporating the works of Sissela Bok who examined the ethics of both secrecy and lying. By applying her principles to case studies of deliberately disguised or distorted messages in academic settings, this project suggests an approach for the moral exercise of secret communications, otherwise known as an ethics of occultic rhetoric. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction . 1 Dissertation Question . 2 Chapter I. Literature Review on the Obscurity of Language . 6 Section I.1: Notable Examples on the Obscurity of Language . 12 Section I.2: Challenges within Scientific & Postmodern Rhetoric . 23 Section I.3: Ethical Reflections on the Problem of Obscure Rhetoric . 32 Section I.4: On Secret Languages . 44 Section I.5: The Occult Connection . 53 Chapter II. Joshua Gunn and the Rhetoric of the Occult . 57 Section II.1: Occultism as Content and Form . 62 Section II.2: Blavatsky’s Occult Poetics . 68 Section II.3: Crowley’s Hermeneutics of Authority . 73 Section II.4: LaVey’s Ironic Imagery in the Mass Media . 82 Section II.5: Rhetorical Considerations . 89 Chapter III. Sissela Bok and the Ethics of Secrecy . 93 Section III.1: On Privacy and Lying . 96 Section III.2: The Principle of Intent . 102 v Section III.3: Secrecy and Power . 105 Section III.4: Ethical Considerations . 112 Chapter IV. Bok and Gunn on the Ethics of Occultic Rhetoric . 118 Section IV.1: The Occult and the Academy . 119 Section IV.2: The Conflicted Ethics of the Fool . 128 Section IV.3: Illuminating Gunn's Contradiction . 137 Section IV.4: Bok Renovates the Foundations . 148 Section IV.5: Contingent and Necessary Causes . 163 Section IV.6: Grappling with Hierarchies and Mystification . 175 Section IV.7: Discerning the Justifications . 190 Conclusion . 215 References . 219 vi INTRODUCTION “Philosophers are notorious for having private vocabularies.” —Mortimer Adler (1902-2001) Occultic rhetoric is a genre of human communication that is of central importance to scholars interested in exploring the tensions between clarity and obscurity. One such scholar is Joshua Gunn, associate professor of communication studies at the University of Texas at Austin, who has fashioned much of his career around studying “the category of the ineffable, and in particular, how people use and abuse signs and symbols to negotiate ineffability” (Gunn, 2015). Ineffable communication, characterized by much religious and poetical discourse, is the kind of communication that goes beyond the power of words to tell—to communicate the incommunicable. Gunn recognizes that efforts to engage divine mysteries and scientific unknowns have often resulted in language that can be difficult to interpret, and which can seem to convey a secretive knowledge that is privy only to those who can understand such language. Analysis of the uses and abuses of difficult speech was showcased in Gunn’s seminal work Modern Occult Rhetoric (2005) which focused on the “occultic” as a central metaphor for the type of secret-wielding rhetoric responsible for the creation of insider and outsider groups. As the above introductory quote by philosopher Mortimer Adler suggests, the jargon or “private vocabularies” of philosophers have a reputation for frustrating audiences because of a felt need to “coin new words, or to take some word from common speech and make it a technical word” (Adler & Doren, 1972, p. 105). Such difficulties of language, while necessary at times for purposes of accuracy, are used in other times for the “notorious” purposes of secrecy. By generating an atmosphere of uncertainty and confusion through deliberately obscure language, people can pass on secret messages in a 1 variety of exclusive and beguiling ways, the results of which have been used to influence or control public beliefs and behaviors. But what are the ethics of such manipulative strategies? How is one to ascertain the moral worth of rhetoric as it relates to engagements in secrecy and obfuscation? Such inquiries reflect a serious concern over the kind of questionable tactics to be found within cryptic forms of communication, exploited not only by philosophers, but also by politicians, scientists, gangs, poets, and the military. One group particularly adept in such language is the academicians within our colleges. Academic discourse has been equally guilty of committing to secretive vocabularies that tend to obscure meaning, and impair or discriminate understanding amongst their various audiences. DISSERTATION QUESTION The discriminatory rhetoric of secrecy has been increasingly practiced by modern academics in a way that resembles the historical rhetoric of occult practices. The rhetoric of the occult is a rhetoric of secrets—the keeping of secrets, as well as the subtle art of revealing them. Gunn draws on this connection between the rhetoric of the academy and the rhetoric of the occult, for both traditions seem to foster a particular pattern of communication that is characterized by mystery, enigma, and obscurity. The occult is Gunn’s case study from which he seeks to better understand the difficult language of the academy. The academy too often engages in modes of thought and expression that leave audiences feeling baffled or excluded, while for others eliciting feelings of insight and privilege. Gunn terms this genre of rhetoric the “occultic”—the language of secrecy. The occultic is Gunn’s “cool, new term” for the type of language responsible for controlling the flow of hidden knowledge and the way it is understood by insiders and outsiders. 2 Occultic rhetoric is “a popular social phenomenon that is currently difficult to capture and, consequently, rarely discussed in scholarly literature” (Gunn, 2005, p. xxviii). Part of the reason why the occultic is rarely discussed is because it is difficult to define. Occultic rhetoric shares in the irony of being occultic itself, for as Gunn admits, occultic rhetoric is a concept shrouded in theoretical complexity: “readers expecting a direct or definitive definition of the term are likely to be disappointed. To understand something as ‘rhetorical’ is to understand it as negotiable, as a contingent and protean object that can only be discerned partially and indirectly through case studies” (2005, p. xxiii). A “protean object” is a fitting way to describe the heart of occultic rhetoric, for it refers to Proteus—the Greek god who could change his shape, readily assuming different forms (De Romilly, 1975, p. 28). The philosopher Plato (428-348 BC) once referred to sophistic rhetoricians as dangerous magicians because, like Proteus, they could give truth different shapes. Such is the case here when dealing with occultic rhetoric which attempts to represent (or give shape to) hidden, ineffable truths. The hidden, the protean, the vague, the strange, the mysterious