Topica
The Topica are a work of Marcus Tullius Cicero , in which he dealt with topics of rhetoric and especially with the Topic of Aristotle . Cicero wrote the book on the sea voyage to Greece in 44 BC. Chr.
content
The dedication to Gaius Trebatius Testa is followed by a list of methods for finding arguments in order to give credibility to a controversial matter ( locus (Latin), τοπική (Greek)). The loci are presented in more detail below . This part is mainly committed to the topic of Aristotle. The examples, which are only taken from the legal field, do not come from this source.
In §§ 54–57, Cicero sets out several modes of elementary syllogisms . He does not use this Greek loan word, but writes about conclusio argumenti , the argumentative conclusion of the dialectici .
From § 79 onwards, Cicero developed the concept of the objects of investigation ( quaestiones ) that appear in speeches and relates them to suitable loci . From Section 91 onwards, he deals with special speeches (eulogy, lecture, etc.).
swell
Contrary to his assertion in §§ 1–5, the book is not a translation of Aristotle's Topic. There are some thoughts from this work in the Topica, but material from the rhetoric of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers also flows into it. Cicero already dealt with the books of Aristotle in his work De oratore .
Living on and tradition
The font had a great influence on subsequent authors. Cicero's remarks on definition (§§ 1–35) formed the guideline in the first half of the book De definitionibus by Gaius Marius Victorinus , in which Cicero is also mentioned several times. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius wrote his work Anicii Manlii Severini Boethii commentarii in Ciceronis topica at the beginning of the 6th century , which was widely received in the early Middle Ages. About 140 manuscripts are known (some short fragments), the oldest from the 9th century. Paulus Manutius edited the work together with a few others on a similar subject in 1559, and DM Lambinus included it in his Cicero Complete Edition in 1566. Karl Bayer published an edition with translation into German in 1953 and Tobias Reinhardt in 2003 edition and translation into English.
expenditure
- M. Tullius Cicero: Topica. Edited, translated and explained by Karl Bayer , Munich 1993.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero: Topica. Edited with a translation, introduction and commentary by Tobias Reinhardt. Oxford 2003-
- Marcus Tullius Cicero: Topic. Translated and edited with an introduction by Hans Günter Zekl , Hamburg 1983.
literature
- Karl Bayer, M. Tullius Cicero: Topica, introduction. Munich 1993.
- Hans Günter Zekl, Marcus Tullius Cicero: Topic, Introduction. Munich 1983.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Frede : The stoic logic (= treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Phil.-hist. Kl. 3rd episode, vol. 88). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1974, pp. 148-167
- ^ Karl Bayer, introduction.
- ↑ Hans Günter Zekl, introduction.
- ↑ Andreas Pronay (ed.): C. Marius Victorinus: Liber de definitionibus , Frankfurt 1997, p 17
- ^ Eleonore Stump : Boethius's In Ciceronis Topica , Ithaca: Cornell University Press 1988
- ^ Tobias Reinhardt: Marcus Tullius Cicero: Topica , S-73