Christopher W. Tindale 
Plato’s Reasons 
Logician, Rhetorician, Dialectician

This book explores Plato’s implicit understanding of argumentation by reviewing his standing as a logician, rhetorician, and dialectician. The question of his ‘standing’ on these matters is approached on his terms (gleaned from the dialogues) rather than simply from the judgments of commentators. Traditionally, arguments are distinguished as logical, rhetorical, or dialectical, and the source of these distinctions is taken to be Aristotle. This book proceeds on the assumption that Aristotle’s tripartite theory of argumentation did not arise in a vacuum and explores the different degrees to which substantive antecedents of parts of that model can be traced to Plato.

Tabla de materias

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations and Translations

General Introduction: Inside the City of Reason




Part I: The Logician



Introduction to Part I: Plato and the Intricacies of Logic



1. Socratic Arguments



2. Refutation: The Logic of the Early Dialogues



3. Contentious Arguments: Preconditions for Aristotle’s Theory of “Fallacy” in the Dialogues of Plato



4. Strong Arguments




Part II: The Rhetorician



Introduction to Part II: Plato’s Style



5. Plato’s Attack on Rhetoric: Fractures in the Standard Narrative



6. The
Atopic Philosopher



7. Platonic Devices



8. Back in Plato’s Labyrinth: The Rhetorical Challenges of the
Republic



9. Rhetoric in the Middle Plato and Beyond




Part III: The Dialectician



Introduction to Part III: A New Dialectic



10. Tracing Dialectic



11. The Song that Dialectic Sings: Methods in the Middle Dialogues



12. The Dialectician



References

Index

Sobre el autor

Christopher W. Tindale is Director of the Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation, and Rhetoric at the University of Windsor in Canada. He is the author of
How We Argue: 30 Lessons in Persuasive Communication and
The Anthropology of Argument: Cultural Foundations of Rhetoric and Reason, among other books.