ABSTRACT Dissociation is considered by many to be Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca's most innovative and significant contribution to rhetorical theory. Currently on display in American debates over racial justice and public health, dissociation is a nuanced process of conceptual reconfiguration. After exploring how dissociation figures in these debates, the introduction summarizes how scholars over the years have extended and complicated the concept. The introduction then identifies key gaps in scholarship that are addressed by the articles included in this special section, including (...) dissociation's philosophical genesis, its linguistic manifestations, its structural possibilities, and its role in comedic discourse. (shrink)

In this paper it is shown how plausible reasoning of the kind illustrated in the ancient Greek example of the weak and strong man can be analyzed and evaluated using a procedure in which the pro evidence is weighed against the con evidence using formal, computational argumentation tools. It is shown by means of this famous example how plausible reasoning is based on an audience’s recognition of situations of a type they are familiar with as normal and comprehensible in their (...) shared common knowledge. The paper extends previous work on this example by using three new multiagent argumentation schemes closely related to the scheme for argument from negative consequences. (shrink)

El fin de este trabajo es analizar desde un punto de vista histórico y sistemático la paradoja adscrita a Córax de Siracusa y a Tisias. Primero se exponen las diferentes versiones de la misma. Segundo se describe el argumento de la probabilidad y la argumentación recíproca. Seguidamente se estudian las refutaciones desarrolladas por Platón y Aristóteles. El primero acentúa la distinción entre verdad y probabilidad. El segundo analiza los diferentes significados de probabilidad. Posteriormente se reconstruirá la estructura autorreferencial en la (...) que se asienta la paradoja de Córax. Finalmente se evalúa sistemáticamente el argumento de la probabilidad inversa. En este trabajo argumentaré que el recurso seguido por Córax tiene como fin invalidar el procedimiento mediante la introducción de la estructura de la probabilidad inversa. (shrink)

Though popular in the nineteenth century and widespread since, the elements of the hoax form can be traced to the origins of rhetorical theorizing, principally in the strategies of probability and counterprobability developed by the early orators and sophists. This article begins by defining features of the hoax as a textual event and then describes how hoaxes use traditional rhetorical techniques of both probability and improbability to transport viewers from credulity and acceptance to doubt and disbelief, demonstrating technical mastery over (...) rhetorical conventions of the genre to mock their targets and to entertain and instruct their audience. (shrink)