Argument and Reason (Modern Enthymeme)


Kristen Seas ENGL 624/Sullivan Fall 2005 Purdue University	Argument and Reason: Argument, though a branch of rhetoric (even the branch if rhetoric is distinguished from eloquence) is solely concerned with reason, an appeal to logic/understanding. Again I focus here on the Scottish/British tradition for their articulations of argument: "[A speaker] proposes either to dispel ignorance or to vanquish error. In the one, his aim is their information; in the other, their conviction. Accordingly the predominant quality of the former is perspecuity; of the latter, argument. By that we are made to know, by this to believe." (146) - George Campbell, 1776 "Reason and argument make the foundation, as I have often inculcated, of all manly and persuasive eloquence." - Hugh Blair, 1783 "Argument must be, in most cases at least, the basis of Persuasion." (282) Whately even defines the parameters of Rhetoric itself in terms of argument: *The art of inventing* and arranging Arguments is, as has been said, the only province that Rhetoric can claim entirely and exclusively." (Rhetoric 299)** - Richard Whately, 1828 Blair even sets argument, and its appealing to reasoning, in contrast to persuasion's appeal to the passions: "Wherever conviction is the object, it is the understanding alone that is to be applied to. IT is by argument and reasoning, that one man attempts to satisfy another of what is true, or right, or just; but if persuasion be the object, the case is changed." (122) Yet Campbell stresses the necessity of appealing to both the reason and the passions in order to influence the will of people into action: "[T]he most complex of all, which is calculated to influence the will, and persuade to a certain conduct, is in reality an artful mixture of that which proposes to convince the judgment, and that which interests the passions, its distinguished excellency results from these two, the argumentative and the pathetic incorporated together." (147-8) More important for our considerations here are Whately's definitions of argument, which we find in his Elements of Logic rather than in his Elements of Rhetoric (a discrepancy worth noting): Whately labels the strict sense of "reason" as to "make use of arguments" (23) and argues that "it could not but appear desireable to lay down some general rules of reasoning applicable to all cases; by which a person might be enables the more readily and clearly to state the grounds of his own conviction, or of his objection to the arguments of an opponent; instead of arguing at random, without any fixed and acknowledged principles to guide his procedure" (25). "There are three operations [or states] of the mind which are immediately concerned in Argument: which ar called by logical writers - 1st. Simple=apprehension, 2d. Judgment; 3d. Disourse or Reasoning." (55)
Table of Contents: Project Description 19th c. Logical Definitions of Enthymeme Main Contentions of Project: Thought v. Language Logic v. Rhetoric Argument and Reason Syllogistic Reasoning Enthymeme as Abridged Argument Lost Translation - Missing Definition of Enthymeme Works Cited

Kristen Seas
ENGL 624/Sullivan
Fall 2005
Purdue University

Argument and Reason:

Argument, though a branch of rhetoric (even the branch if rhetoric is distinguished from eloquence) is solely concerned with reason, an appeal to logic/understanding. Again I focus here on the Scottish/British tradition for their articulations of argument:

"[A speaker] proposes either to dispel ignorance or to vanquish error. In the one, his aim is their information; in the other, their conviction. Accordingly the predominant quality of the former is perspecuity; of the latter, argument. By that we are made to know, by this to believe." (146)

- George Campbell, 1776

"Reason and argument make the foundation, as I have often inculcated, of all manly and persuasive eloquence."

- Hugh Blair, 1783

"Argument must be, in most cases at least, the basis of Persuasion." (282)

Whately even defines the parameters of Rhetoric itself in terms of argument: The art of inventing and arranging Arguments is, as has been said, the only province that Rhetoric can claim entirely and exclusively." (Rhetoric 299)

- Richard Whately, 1828

Blair even sets argument, and its appealing to reasoning, in contrast to persuasion's appeal to the passions:

"Wherever conviction is the object, it is the understanding alone that is to be applied to. IT is by argument and reasoning, that one man attempts to satisfy another of what is true, or right, or just; but if persuasion be the object, the case is changed." (122)

Yet Campbell stresses the necessity of appealing to both the reason and the passions in order to influence the will of people into action:

"[T]he most complex of all, which is calculated to influence the will, and persuade to a certain conduct, is in reality an artful mixture of that which proposes to convince the judgment, and that which interests the passions, its distinguished excellency results from these two, the argumentative and the pathetic incorporated together." (147-8)

More important for our considerations here are Whately's definitions of argument, which we find in his Elements of Logic rather than in his Elements of Rhetoric (a discrepancy worth noting):

Whately labels the strict sense of "reason" as to "make use of arguments" (23) and argues that "it could not but appear desireable to lay down some general rules of reasoning applicable to all cases; by which a person might be enables the more readily and clearly to state the grounds of his own conviction, or of his objection to the arguments of an opponent; instead of arguing at random, without any fixed and acknowledged principles to guide his procedure" (25).

"There are three operations [or states] of the mind which are immediately concerned in Argument: which ar called by logical writers - 1st. Simple=apprehension, 2d. Judgment; 3d. Disourse or Reasoning." (55)

Argument and Reason:

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