This workshop attempts to foster inquiry into a prior question, that is, a question behind a question—not the familiar, "What is a rhetorical ethics?" but instead, "Is a rhetorical ethics possible’? In one of his early philosophical essays, Bakhtin reiterates a longstanding distinction between a formal ethics and a content ethics. Bakhtin’s insights serve as a starting point to explore what kind of rhetorical ethics is possible once we refuse predetermined rules and methods for ethical action.