Abstract
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.
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Braet, A.C. The Common Topic in Aristotle’s Rhetoric: Precursor of the Argumentation Scheme. Argumentation 19, 65–83 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-005-2313-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-005-2313-x