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Polemic (/pəˈlɛmɪk/pə-LEHM-ick,US also/-ˈlimɪk/-LEEM-ick) is contentiousrhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is calledpolemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial topics. A person who writes polemics, or speaks polemically, is called apolemicist.[1] The word derives from Ancient Greek πολεμικός (polemikos) 'warlike, hostile',[1][2] from πόλεμος (polemos) 'war'.[3]
Polemics often concern questions in religion or politics. A polemical style of writing was common inAncient Greece, as in the writings of the historianPolybius. Polemic again became common inmedieval andearly modern times. Since then, famous polemicists have included satiristJonathan Swift, Italian physicist and mathematicianGalileo, French theologianJean Calvin, French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopherVoltaire, Russian authorLeo Tolstoy, socialist philosophersKarl Marx andFriedrich Engels, novelistGeorge Orwell, playwrightGeorge Bernard Shaw, communist revolutionaryVladimir Lenin,linguistNoam Chomsky, social criticsH.L. Mencken,Christopher Hitchens andPeter Hitchens, and existential philosophersSøren Kierkegaard andFriedrich Nietzsche.
Polemical journalism was common incontinental Europe whenlibel laws were not as stringent as they are now.[4] To support study of 17th to 19th century controversies, a British research project has placed online thousands of polemical pamphlets from that period.[5] Discussions of atheism, humanism, and Christianity have remained open to polemic into the 21st century.
InAncient Greece, writing was characterised by what Geoffrey Lloyd andNathan Sivin called "strident adversariality" and "rationalistic aggressiveness", summed up by McClinton as polemic.[6][7] For example, the ancient historianPolybius practiced "quite bitter self-righteous polemic" against some twenty philosophers, orators, and historians.[8]
Polemical writings were common inmedieval andearly modern times.[9] During the Middle Ages, polemic had a religious dimension, as inJewish texts written to protect and dissuade Jewish communities from converting to other religions.[10]Medieval Christian writings were also often polemical; for example in their disagreements on Islam[11] or in the vast corpus aimed at converting the Jews.[12][13]Martin Luther's95 Theses was a polemic launched against the Catholic Church.[6][note 1]Robert Carliell's 1619 defence of the newChurch of England and diatribe against theRoman Catholic Church –Britaine's glorie, or An allegoricall dreame with the exposition thereof: containing The Heathens infidelitie in religion ... – took the form of a 250-line poem.[14]
Major political polemicists of the 18th century includeJonathan Swift, with pamphlets such as hisA Modest Proposal,Alexander Hamilton, with pieces such asA Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress andA Farmer Refuted, andEdmund Burke, with his attack on theDuke of Bedford.[15]
In the 19th century,Karl Marx andFriedrich Engels's 1848Communist Manifesto was extremely polemical.[6] Both Marx and Engels would publish further polemical works, with Engels's workAnti-Dühring serving as a polemic againstEugen Dühring, and Marx'sCritique of the Gotha Programme againstFerdinand Lasalle.
Vladimir Lenin published polemics against political opponents.The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky was notably directed againstKarl Kautsky, and other works such asThe State and Revolution attacked figures includingEduard Bernstein.
In the 20th century,George Orwell'sAnimal Farm was a polemic againsttotalitarianism, in particular ofStalinism in theSoviet Union. According to McClinton, other prominent polemicists of the same century include such diverse figures asHerbert Marcuse,Noam Chomsky,John Pilger, andMichael Moore.[6]
Conservative Jewish Austrian writer and journalist Karl Kraus (1890-1935) considers the topic of moral collapse in his polemic writings. Karl Kraus produced and published 922 issues of the fifteen-daily magazine called Die Fackel (The Torch) until his death. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Sigmund Freud, Ernest Mach write in a similar manner and style to Kraus;
In 2007 Brian McClinton argued inHumani that anti-religious books such asRichard Dawkins'sThe God Delusion are part of the polemic tradition.[6] In 2008 the humanist philosopherA. C. Grayling published a book,Against All Gods: Six Polemics on Religion and an Essay on Kindness.[16]
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