Topics (Aristotle)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
The Topics is the name given to one of Aristotle's six standard works on logic, collectively known as the Organon. The other five are Categories, Prior Analytics, De Interpretatione, Posterior Analytics, and Sophistical Refutations. The Topics was written as a textbook on how to argue successfully. Topoi are basic principles designed to help a disputant win arguments. In the Topics, Aristotle does not define a topos, though he characterises it in the Rhetorics as follows: "I call the same thing element and topos; for an element or a topos is a heading under which many enthymemes fall" (Rhet. 1403a18-19). By 'element', he means a general form under which enthymemes of the same type can be included. Thus the topos is a general argument form, of which the individual arguments are instances, and is thus a sort of template from which many individual arguments can be constructed. The word 'topos' (place, location) is probably derived from an ancient method of memorizing things by connecting them in the mind with successive places (e.g. as houses along a street one knows). The Topics seem to represents a pre-syllogistic version of Aristotelian logic, since there are no hints of syllogistic theory in it. BibliographyEditions of the Greek text
External links
|
