I. Aristotle’s “Rhetoric:”
Reread passages on enthymeme and paradigm in Rhetoric (Book 1, chapter 1. # 11; chapter 2 # 2, # 8-19, # 21.
Identify an example of enthymeme (Dorieus or ‘fever and illness’ or ‘giving birth and milk) and paradigm (Dionysius plotting tyranny) and try to understand the form of the argument each is supposed to represent.
II. Bacon’s “Preamble” and “Preface.”
Read the “Preamble and the “Preface” to Bacons’ “Great Instauration.”
Qu1: Articulate, in your own words, the negative and the positive theses enunciated in the Preface of “The Great Instauration”
Qu2: What are the alleged consequences of the alleged fact that men overrate their resources and underrate their strengths?
Study Questions:
Qu: What are the background conditions for a rhetorically adequate enthymeme according to Aristotle?
Qu: What is the general and explicit form of an enthymeme according to Aristotle?
Qu: Why does Aristotle distinguish enthymemes of a purely logical kind from those that rely on probability and those that rely on signs?
Qu (RE Bacon): Taking the italicized opening of the “Preface” as a point of departure, construct an enthymeme that yields a first argument in that Preface.
Qu (RE Bacon): Think of a reason why Bacon did not use the syllogistic/enthymematic form when he formulates his theses at the opening of his “Preface?”
Qu: (RE Aristotle) What is the general form of a paradigm or ‘example?’
Qu: What is the persuasive power of ‘paradigm?’
Qu (RE Bacon, “Preface”): Take “an assumption of wealth is among the greatest causes of poverty” established common knowledge. Analyze it as a “paradigm” in Aristotle’s sense and spell out an inductive argument it might support.