Definition:
A rhetorical term for the expression of doubt or uncertainty. The doubt that is expressed may be genuine or feigned.
In oratory, dubitatio commonly takes the form of expressions of uncertainty about the ability to speak effectively.
See also:
Etymology:
From the Latin, "wavering in opinion"Examples and Observations:
- "If living sympathy be theirs
And leaves and airs,
The piping breeze and dancing tree
Are all alive and glad as we:
Whether this be truth or no
I cannot tell, I do not know;
Nay--whether now I reason well,
I do not know, I cannot tell."
("The Barberry-Tree," attributed to William Wordsworth) - "One device of which [Thomas Hobbes] makes frequent use is dubitatio, the ironic expression of doubt or ignorance. . . . Some English rhetoricians had assumed that the purpose of the device is to give voice to genuine uncertainties, in consequence of which they made no distinction between dubitatio and aporia. But others recognised that, as Thomas Wilson observes, the defining characteristic of dubitatio must be its disingenuousness. We are far from expressing any real uncertainty; we merely 'make the hearers believe that the weight of our matter causeth us to doubte what were best to speake.'"
(Quentin Skinner, Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997) - "I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts:
I am no orator, as Brutus is;
But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,
That love my friend; and that they know full well
That gave me public leave to speak of him:
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood: I only speak right on."
(Marc Antony in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act III, scene 2) - "You know I'm not good at making speeches, especially when I don't have you to write them for me."
(Dan Wanamaker, played by Alan Alda, in What Women Want, 2000) - "Dubitatio consists in the speaker's trying to strengthen the credibility (fides veritatis) of his own point of view by means of a feigned oratorical helplessness, which expresses itself in the appeal to the audience, made in the form of a question, for advice concerning the efficient and relevant intellectual development of the speech."
(Heinrich Lausberg, Handbook of Literary Rhetoric: A Foundation for Literary Study, 2nd ed.. Translated by Matthew T. Bliss and edited by David E. Orton and R. Dean Anderson. Brill, 1998) - "Hey, I don't have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success."
(Jared Jussim as Dicky Fox in Jerry McGuire, 1996) - "Dubitatio is not always an oratorical device . . .. The speaker's intonation always conveys a high or low degree of assurance. Doubt is quite natural in interior monologue."
(Bernard Dupriez, A Dictionary of Literary Devices, trans. by Albert W. Halsall. Univ. of Toronto Press, 1991)
Also Known As: indecision
