The Art of Dialectic between Dialogue and Rhetoric: The Aristotelian Tradition (Controversies)

This book reconstructs the tradition of dialectic from Aristotle's __Topics__, its founding text, up to its "renaissance" in 16th century Italy, and focuses on the role of dialectic in the production of knowledge. Aristotle defines dialectic as a structured exchange of questions and answers and thus links it to dialogue and disputation, while Cicero develops a mildly skeptical version of dialectic, identifies it with reasoning __in utramque partem__ and connects it closely to rhetoric. These two interpretations constitute the backbone of the living tradition of dialectic and are variously developed in the Renaissance against the Medieval background. The book scrutinizes three separate contexts in which these developments occur: Rudolph Agricola's attempt to develop a new dialectic in close connection with rhetoric, Agostino Nifo's thoroughly Aristotelian approach and its use of the newly translated commentaries of Alexander of Aphrodisias and Averroes, and Carlo Sigonio's literary theory of the dialogue form, which is centered around Aristotle's __Topics__. Today, Aristotelian dialectic enjoys a new life within argumentation theory: the final chapter of the book briefly revisits these contemporary developments and draws some general epistemological conclusions linking the tradition of dialectic to a fallibilist view of knowledge. The Art of Dialectic between Dialogue and Rhetoric......Page 2 Editorial page......Page 3 Title page......Page 4 LCC data......Page 5 Dedication page......Page 6 Table of contents......Page 8 Introduction: Dialectic and the notion of tradition......Page 14 1. Aristotle and the art of dialectic......Page 24 1.1.1 What dialectic is and how it works......Page 27 1.1.2 The uses of dialectic and its epistemic function......Page 31 1.2 Disputation and knowledge: “peirastic” and “non-peirastic” dialectic......Page 37 1.2.1 The Sophistical Refutations......Page 38 1.2.2 The eighth book of the Topics......Page 39 1.3 The ‘topoi’ in rhetoric and dialectic......Page 43 1.3.1 Rhetorical and dialectical invention......Page 44 1.3.2 The nature and function of the ‘topoi’......Page 45 1.4 Conclusions: Dialectical reasoning, assent and necessity......Page 47 2. Dialectic in the Latin world: Cicero, Boethius and the scholastics......Page 52 2.1 Cicero: rhetoric and reasoning in utramque partem......Page 53 2.1.1 The ‘loci’: Invention and judgment......Page 54 2.1.2 Disputation and probable reasoning......Page 56 2.2 Boethius, the Topics and the liberal arts......Page 60 2.3 Interlude: The Topics in the Middle Ages and the ‘quaestio disputata’......Page 64 2.3.1 The topics (‘loci’) and Scholastic dialectic......Page 66 2.3.2 The Medieval ‘quaestio disputata’ and the ‘obligationes’......Page 67 3. The revival of dialectic in the Renaissance: An introduction......Page 72 4. The new humanist dialectic and rhetoric......Page 78 4.1 Renaissance Humanism and the revenge of rhetoric......Page 82 4.1.1 Philosophy against persuasion......Page 83 4.1.2 Dialectic and sophistry......Page 85 4.2 Rudolph Agricola and the reform of dialectic......Page 89 4.3 Invention and judgment......Page 91 4.3.1 The places......Page 94 4.3.2 The field of dialectical invention......Page 96 4.3.3 The use of arguments: Affects and disposition......Page 98 4.4 Probability: Proof and things......Page 101 4.4.1 “Suitability” and audience......Page 104 4.4.2 “Fittingness” and the world......Page 105 4.5 Conclusions: Argument, persuasion and invention......Page 108 5. The Topics and Renaissance Aristotelianism......Page 112 5.1 Renaissance Aristotelianism and dialectic......Page 114 5.1.1 Alexander of Aphrodisias: Aristotelian dialectic and the art of debate......Page 115 5.1.2 Averroes: The art of logic and kinds of assent......Page 118 5.1.3 Aristotelianism and Humanism......Page 120 5.2 Agostino Nifo between Averroism and Alexandrinism......Page 122 5.3 The meaning of dialectic......Page 123 5.3.1 Dialectic and demonstration......Page 124 5.3.2 Probability and disputation......Page 127 5.4 The uses of dialectic and knowledge......Page 132 5.4.1 The “invention” and “judgment” of the truth......Page 134 5.4.2 Dialectic and the principles of science......Page 138 5.5 Different types of dialectic and disputation......Page 141 5.6 Conclusions: Aristotle’s dialectic and knowledge revisited......Page 144 6. Dialectic and dialogue......Page 146 6.1.1 The historical and intellectual origins of dialogue......Page 150 6.1.2 The “force and nature” of dialogue (9r)......Page 154 6.1.3 “Preparation” and imitation......Page 156 6.1.4 “Contention”: Dialectical proof between science and rhetoric......Page 159 6.1.5 The forms and aims of dialogue......Page 164 6.2 Sperone Speroni: “Aporetic” dialogue as a playful game......Page 167 6.2.1 Dialogue and opinion as the “portrait of science”......Page 168 6.2.2 Imitation, illusion and invention......Page 170 7. Rhetoric and dialectic......Page 174 Conclusion: The epistemological value of Aristotelian dialectic......Page 186 Notes......Page 192 References......Page 228 Name index......Page 244 Subject index......Page 250