Van Eemeren et al Flashcards
Dialectic and rhetoric: then and now
In ancient times, dialectic and rhetoric were seen as disciplines, but nowadays they are seen as different views or perspectives on the material.
Logic was not considered a discipline of its own - it was included with dialectic.
Difference between the beginnings of dialectic and that of rhetoric
Dialectic: developed within contexts of private gatherings where philosophers discussed the
nature of reality and mankind
Rhetoric: developed within the contexts of public life where citizens delivered speeches regarding judicial and political issues in front of a judging audience
Zeno’s paradoxes
Zeno was famous for using ‘reducio ad absurdum’ a lot, to refute a standpoint.
‘Reducio ad absurdum’ is a form of argument which attempts either to:
- disprove a statement by showing it inevitably leads to a ridiculous, absurd, or impractical conclusion
- prove a statement by showing that if it were not true, the result would be absurd or impossible.
The ‘inventor’ of dialectic
Zeno had the status of being the ‘inventor’ of dialectic, because he was famous for using the ‘reductio ad absurdum’ argument. This way of refuting was central to the discipline of dialectic (although the specific tecnical term ‘dialectics’ hadn’t been used yet at the time of Zeno).
First use of the tecnical term ‘dialectic’
Plato was the first one to explicitly use the term
dialectic as a technical term.
Dialectic according to Plato
Plato: Dialectic is a way of philosophizing
i.e. dialectic is ‘a way of finding and explaining philosophical truths by means of conducting discussions’
Three different ‘forms’ of the dialectical method of philosophizing (Plato)
- Socratic refutation debate
- Method of hypothesizing
- Method of collection and division
Socratic refutation debate
Plato’s early dialogues
- Questioner asks ‘answerer’ a question
- Answerer (by answering the question) takes a standpoint
- Questioner asks Answerer a series of yes/no questions
- Questioner refutes the Answerer’s standpoint on the
basis of the concessions that are made by answering yes/no to Questioner’s questions
Aim: to find out whether a standpoint is tenable in the light of certain concessions made
Method of hypothesizing
Plato’s middle dialogues
- Discussiants draw a set of consequences from the hypothesis
- in case the set of consequences is internally consistent, the hypothesis is accepted
- in case the set of consequences is internally inconsistent, the hypothesis is abandoned
Aim: to actually show that a standpoint is tenable
Method of collection and division
Plato’s late dialogues
Aim: to find a right definition of some term
At the end of the discussion, the definition is given by summing up in the right order all the species and subspecies that link the term to be defined with the most comprehensive term.
The sophists
‘Teachers of rhetoric’
Their teaching concentrated on skills regarding the composition and presentation of an effective speech.
They provided the students with model speeches, not with rules of the art.
The relativistic idea of the sophists
There are always two sides to every issue and the ultimate truth is not to be found.
Plato’s critique of the rhetoric of the sophists
The rhetoric of the sophists teaches speakers to persuade by telling the audience what is pleasant rather than what is the best thing to do.
Rhetoric to Alexander
The first handbook that does not only contain models or examples for imitation but also more or less systematically organized collections of rules (or instructions) pertaining to different types of speech.
Aristoteles: Topica & sophistici elenchi
Aristoteles was the first to write about the aims, structure, rules and strategies of philosophical debates (dialectic, including logic).
