Which properties are characteristic of the enthymeme in Aristotle's Rhetoric? There is no consensus on this point. The present discussion centres on three properties. 1. Is there always an implicit premise? (Answer: Above all, a pragmatic level and a logical level must be distinguished.) 2. Do the premises consist by definition of probabilities and signs? (Answer: No.). 3. Are all enthymemes reducible to a syllogistic form? (Answer: The literature pertaining to this question is dominated by a false dilemma: an enthymeme (...) does not have either a topical or a syllogistic structure). In general, Aristotle's approach to the enthymeme in the Rhetoric appears to shift from argumentation theory to logic. (shrink)

In the Organon, Aristotle distinguished two types of reasoning: analytical and dialectical. His studies on analytical reasoning in the Prior and Posterior Analytics, earned him the title of the father of formal logic. According to Chaim Perelman, modern logicians have failed to see the fact that Aristotle’s considerations on dialectical reasoning in the Topics, the Rhetoric and the Sophistical Refutations made him also the father of the theory of argumentation. This article attempts to answer this diagnosis. Our aim is to (...) prove Perelman’s thesis on the homogeneity of Aristotle’s concept of theoretical and practical syllogism. The key concept in this proof is that of the enthymeme. In the article, we will try to answer the question of what place the enthymeme occupies in Aristotle’s theory of rhetoric and confront it with the concept of a syllogism. We will also outline the structure of argumentation that makes use of the enthymeme, and present two types of enthymemes discussed by Aristotle: the apparent enthymeme and the refutative enthymeme. (shrink)

In the present article I attribute to the common topic in the Rhetoric a two-fold suggestive function and a guarantee function. These three functions are possible because this type of topic, while often quite abstract, nevertheless contains thought-steering, substantial terms, and formulates a generally empirical or normative endoxon. Assuming that according to Aristotle an enthymeme has at least two premises, it would appear that a common topic is the abstract principle behind the often implicit major premise. This means that the (...) topic may be regarded as the – generalizing – if-then statement in a modern argumentation scheme. Therefore it should be possible to see the enthymemes of Rhetoric 2.23 as a combination of a logical argument form (which can usually be reconstructed as modus ponens) and an argumentation scheme – even though we may not attribute this idea to Aristotle himself. (shrink)

The paper argues that the arguments from probability so popular in early Greek rhetoric and oratory essentially operate by appealing to common positions shared by both speaker and audience. Particularly in controversial debate provoked by fundamental dissensus they make their claim acceptable to the audience by pointing out a basic coherence or congruence of the speaker’s narrative with the audience’s own pre-established standards or standards of knowledge.

Arystoteles wyodrębnił w Organonie dwa rodzaje rozumowań: analityczne i dialektyczne. Badaniami rozumowań analitycznych, które podjął w Analitykach I i II, zasłużył sobie na miano ojca logiki formalnej. Według Chaima Perelmana, współczesnym logikom umknął z pola widzenia fakt, że rozważania Arystotelesa na temat rozumowań dialektycznych – podjęte w Topikach, Retoryce i O dowodach sofistycznych – czynią zeń także ojca teorii argumentacji. Niniejszy artykuł jest próbą odpowiedzi na tę diagnozę. Jego celem jest potwierdzenie tezy Perelmana o jednorodności Arystotelesowskiej koncepcji sylogizmu teoretycznego i (...) praktycznego. W tym potwierdzeniu kluczową rolę odgrywa pojęcie entymematu. W artykule odpowiadamy na pytanie, jakie miejsce zajmuje ono w teorii retoryki Arystotelesa i porównujemy je z ogólnym pojęciem sylogizmu. Szkicujemy też strukturę argumentacji przez entymemat oraz przedstawiamy dwa typy entymematów omawiane przez Arystotelesa: pozorne i obalające. (shrink)