---
_id: '65730'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: "<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\r\n                  <jats:p>Is explainable
    AI feasible and desirable, and are explanations of AI decisions always good? Many
    answer this question in the affirmative, but there is a growing discourse that
    is suspicious of the promises of explainable AI used to explain decisions towards
    users, considering it unfeasible, undesirable, and even potentially misleading.
    Could explainable AI be just a rhetorical foil? This paper proposes that, yes,
    explainable AI is a rhetorical technology but no, this does not necessarily make
    it undesirable. It starts by revisiting this debate according to the initial charge
    against rhetorics by Plato and Aristotle’s response, considering rhetoric pharmacologically,
    as not only a poison but also a cure for political life. It argues that, just
    as rhetoric was necessary to take care of the temporalities of public life, in
    court, the public event, and the assembly, so may explainable AI contribute to
    a rhetorical context. Yet, whether it does so is conditioned on the extent to
    which it cultivates the civic virtues relative to a respective context. The paper
    considers the examples of predictive policing, credit scoring, and prediction
    markets to argue about ideal states – civic virtues that may be cultivated in
    each appropriate context – and deviations that point at the risks of explainable
    AI to lead to domination, conformism, and political recalcitrance.</jats:p>"
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Wessel
  full_name: Reijers, Wessel
  last_name: Reijers
citation:
  ama: 'Reijers W. Explainable AI as a Rhetorical Technology: Promoting Civic Virtue
    in the Age of AI. <i>Topoi</i>. Published online 2026. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-026-10451-0">10.1007/s11245-026-10451-0</a>'
  apa: 'Reijers, W. (2026). Explainable AI as a Rhetorical Technology: Promoting Civic
    Virtue in the Age of AI. <i>Topoi</i>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-026-10451-0">https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-026-10451-0</a>'
  bibtex: '@article{Reijers_2026, title={Explainable AI as a Rhetorical Technology:
    Promoting Civic Virtue in the Age of AI}, DOI={<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-026-10451-0">10.1007/s11245-026-10451-0</a>},
    journal={Topoi}, publisher={Springer Science and Business Media LLC}, author={Reijers,
    Wessel}, year={2026} }'
  chicago: 'Reijers, Wessel. “Explainable AI as a Rhetorical Technology: Promoting
    Civic Virtue in the Age of AI.” <i>Topoi</i>, 2026. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-026-10451-0">https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-026-10451-0</a>.'
  ieee: 'W. Reijers, “Explainable AI as a Rhetorical Technology: Promoting Civic Virtue
    in the Age of AI,” <i>Topoi</i>, 2026, doi: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-026-10451-0">10.1007/s11245-026-10451-0</a>.'
  mla: 'Reijers, Wessel. “Explainable AI as a Rhetorical Technology: Promoting Civic
    Virtue in the Age of AI.” <i>Topoi</i>, Springer Science and Business Media LLC,
    2026, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-026-10451-0">10.1007/s11245-026-10451-0</a>.'
  short: W. Reijers, Topoi (2026).
date_created: 2026-05-29T12:04:50Z
date_updated: 2026-05-29T12:07:55Z
ddc:
- '140'
doi: 10.1007/s11245-026-10451-0
file:
- access_level: closed
  content_type: application/pdf
  creator: wreijers
  date_created: 2026-05-29T12:06:10Z
  date_updated: 2026-05-29T12:06:10Z
  file_id: '65731'
  file_name: 2026_Reijers_XAI as a Rhetorical Technology.pdf
  file_size: 844081
  relation: main_file
  success: 1
file_date_updated: 2026-05-29T12:06:10Z
has_accepted_license: '1'
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11245-026-10451-0
oa: '1'
project:
- _id: '2718'
  name: TRR 318-2 - Constructing Explainability
publication: Topoi
publication_identifier:
  issn:
  - 0167-7411
  - 1572-8749
publication_status: published
publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
status: public
title: 'Explainable AI as a Rhetorical Technology: Promoting Civic Virtue in the Age
  of AI'
type: journal_article
user_id: '102524'
year: '2026'
...