Cicero, Topica (Topics)

Reading Notes--Adam Kissel

2, promises a rational system for invention (claiming provenance from Aristotle): disciplinam inveniendorum argumentorum, ut sine ullo errore ead ea ratione et via perveniremus, ab Aristotele inventam illis libris contineri, verecunde tu quidem ut omnia
3, an expertus also should be able to teach this
3, RPM? "I am not indeed astonished in the slightest degree that the philosopher was unknown to the teacher of oratory, for he is ignored by all except a few of the professed philosophers."
6, rhetoric architectonic over two divisions: dialectic and topics

31-33: division vs. partition, in definitions:  compare types vs. kinds
  31, division: discerning species as necessarily comprehensive [28: "all"]
  33, partition: enumeration of parts as sometimes comprehensive

53-57: exclusiveness criterion generates Forms 3-7 (modus ponendo tollens, etc.)

71: C claims completeness in his set of rules for invention (likewise later, for topics: internal/invention and external/ethos)

thesis and hypothesis
81: theory vs. practice on the general level [of thesis]
82: 3Q regarding theses: sitne, quid sit, quale sit
  82, Q1, on whether something exists, resolves into four questions
  83, Q2 on definition
  84, Q3, on character
91, on three kinds of speeches [as hypotheses]: judicial, deliberative, laudationis

96 - on ambiguity in the law