Presentation
Presentation of the topics of the International Colloquium
According
to the contemporary approaches to the philosophy of Aristotle, there are
apparently four different views on argumentation which, in principle, can
hardly be reconciled. The view of rhetoric
arising from the treatise "Rhetoric", which
has the concept of auditorium at its core; the
view of dialectics arising from the treatise "Topics", which concerns the debate between opposite theses; the
view arising from the treatise "Sophistical
Refutations", which has been interpreted as corresponding to the
contemporary theory of fallacies; and, finally, that which arises from logic
itself, which is studied in the treatises labelled "Analytics" and is based on syllogistic. What is the tie between these views? The
conceptual framework which will permit them to be to some extent reconciled or
even unified?
Meaningfully, the state of the art of contemporary argumentation theory seems to raise issues similar to the ones mentioned above. To focus simply on the relation between rhetoric and dialectics: some theories reduce argumentation to rhetoric and to the concept of auditorium in particular, thus becoming unable, at least apparently, to understand the specifically dialectic features of argumentation; other theories focus precisely on dialectics, thus having to face the problem of how to understand the rhetorical aspects of argumentation. At the international colloquium ARISTOTLE AND CONTEMPORARY ARGUMENTATION THEORY, which will be held on February 17, 2012, at the Faculty of Letters of Coimbra University (Portugal), some of the most illustrious experts on Aristotle's work and on contemporary argumentation theory will seek to answer the questions on how we can reconcile the views outlined in the treatises mentioned above, what is their impact nowadays and to what extent we can meet the need for a unified argumentation theory prevailing since the time of the great Greek philosopher.