An Analysis Of Aristotle's Dialectic

Aristotle is the founder of logic,and his logic is related to reasoning and argumentation.Syllogism was formed in the “Analytics Prior,” and “Analytics Posterior”.However,seen as a whole Aristotle logic,it has at least two aspects.Except syllogism,there is a logic which is more practical and applied in daily life.The applicable logic embodied in “topics”,“Sophistical Elenchi,” and “Rhetoric”.Aristotle made a rich and detailed discussion on the dialectic from different angles and aspects,forming a systematic dialectic.Aristotle argued that dialectic should be made between the two parties,including argumentation and reasoning.The beginning of argumentation is a proposition,and the reasoning involves the proposition.A topic is a question or proposition,and the analysis of the argumentation cannot be divorced from the topics.Therefore,Aristotle discusses the definition of the topics,the choice of topics and the establishment of the common topics.Moreover,Aristotle's research on the topics goes deep into the semantics.That is to say,the study of the topics needs to be passed through “Predicables”,and any topics should be composed of “Predicables”: Definition,Property,Genus,Accident.Aristotle considered the dialectic reasoning as the object of dialectical.According to the different preconditions,he divided the reasoning into four categories,which are scientific reasoning,dialectic reasoning,sophistry reasoning and impossible reasoning.Besides,dialectic reasoning is carried out on the basis of generally accepted opinions,so dialectic reasoning is generally plausible.However,it may use syllogism in some argumentation.Namely,the premise of dialectic reasoning is based on generally accepted opinion,the method and power of reasoning are same with syllogism.In addition,he also examined the procedure of dialectic and discussed the rules and methods to be followed in the debate.This discussion based on pragmatics and procedure is mainly focused on the eighth volume of the “Topics”.How to ask in the debate? How to arrange? How to respond the questioner's reasoning.We need to defend not only our arguments but also others.The “Sophistical Elenchi” is to expose sophistry.Aristotle dialectic contains the consciousness of examining the argument,namely "the art of examination." He mainly discussed the generation of fallacies in argumentation,the classification of species and the method of eliminating fallacies.Especially,Aristotle rhetoric is a corresponding part of the debate,which core is the three kinds of mode,namely “Personality”,“Emotion”,and “Logic”.Aristotle rhetoric put the audience in the debate and considered the persuasion of the audience as the purpose of the rhetoric.Under the vision of contemporary rhetoric argumentation,a complete argumentation needs three perspectives.“Product” is used to represent the logic dialectic,and “Procedure” is used to represent the pragmatic dialectic,and “Process” is used to express the rhetorical dialectic.To some extent,Aristotle regarded rhetoric as the counterpart of the dialectic,which is the source of the rhetorical regression of contemporary western argumentation.Christopher W.Tindale pointed out that Aristotle used all three perspectives to study argumentation and found some methods and thoughts in different situations.The characteristics of Aristotle's dialectic: concern dialectic reasoning in daily life;ensure the validity of the meaning of the topics and the correctness of the logical relations;use the theories of logic to research the impossible reasoning.In modern times,Aristotle dialectic has had a profound influence on the revival of the theory of argumentation and informal logic.From Aristotle dialectic to three new argumentation theories(Formal dialectics,Pragma-dialectics,New dialectics)and Rhetoric,the contemporary study of argumentation on the morphology and function is more and more varied and complex.It has become the focus of the theory of the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research.