28 Discussion Points Guideline

These "28 Argumentative Guidelines" provide the basic perspectives for discovering and extracting ideas for argumentation in any debate or argument. Specifically,

Cause and Effect, and Use and Purpose."

It includes multiple perspectives, such as

Each argument guideline examines a different aspect of the subject or proposition in question and serves as an "argument clue" that leads to "why it is so" and "on what common principle it is based. This allows us to form more persuasive arguments for the issues to be discussed.

o1 Pro.icon

To briefly summarize the "28 Discussion Points Guideline."

These 28 items are a "point of view list" that indicates from which viewpoints arguments (evidence/evidence) can be drawn when discussing a certain matter. The main categories are as follows

Definition/essence: Consider what can be said from the essential meaning or definition of the subject.

Classes/species: draws properties and characteristics from the higher taxonomy (classes) and lower taxonomy (species) to which the subject belongs.

Characteristic/incidental: The argument is sought in terms of properties inherent in or always associated with the subject.

Cause and effect: The argument is based on what causes the subject and what brings it about (causality).

Use/purpose: Focus on the object from what it is used for and what it is intended to achieve (use/purpose).

Opposites, opposites, and contradictions: arguments are derived from relationships that have opposite meanings or that cannot be simultaneously established.

Comparison (greater or lesser, more or less, equal): highlighting characteristics and importance by comparing with others.

Names and linguistic features: get the discussion point from the linguistic aspect, such as word meanings, etymology, related words, etc.

Division and classification: Divide the object into parts and extract properties from each part.

Antecedent, consequent, affirmative, and negative: Explore arguments from conditions (if - then), affirmative/negative relationships, and logical consequence structures.

Authority, judgment, and convention: reinforce arguments from the views of reliable authorities, social conventions, and judgments of many people.

The above diverse perspectives are organized as "28 Guidelines for Discussion Points," which will help you discover material for discussion from any of these perspectives.

---

I'll check later to see if the above summary is correct.

---

GPT.icon

You can find detailed explanations and background on the 28 issues below:

Perseus Digital Library (original in Latin)

Annotations and translations of De Topicis Differentiis at the Internet Archive[.

Internet Archive: English translation by Eleonore Stump is available.

De Topicis Differentiis is an important treatise on logic and apologetics (Dialecticae) written by Boethius (Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, ca. 480-524), a Latin scholar and philosopher from late antiquity to the early Middle Ages. It is an important treatise on logic and apologetics (Dialecticae) written by Anicius Manlius (ca. 480-524). This book is positioned as an attempt to systematize the "discovery of the point (art of discovery)" and the "establishment of argumentation" in the art of argumentation by comprehensively organizing the "topica (topos)" theory since Aristotle, especially the topica concept presented by Cicero's "Topica" and Themistius and others.

Background and Objectives

In the Topica, Aristotle enumerated numerous arguments (topos) useful for dialectical reasoning, but they were so numerous and varied that later generations were called upon to summarize them for practical purposes.

Themistius, on the other hand, revisited the dialectical topos since Aristotle from the abstract perspective of "first principles and their speciation."

Main Content and Contributions

Conceptual organization of topics (topos):

Boethius formulates "topics" as the basic starting point for discovering the middle term (the mediating term) of an argument and reinforcing the argument.

Classification by first principles and species differences:

Topics are organized using "maxima propositio" (first principles), which are more fundamental and self-evident, and "differentia" (species differences), which identify them typologically. With this method, we have succeeded in transforming a vast maze-like set of issues into a systematically searchable "argument search system.

Application to Dialectical and Argumentative Argumentation:

De Topicis Differentiis considers both argumentative (rigorous and philosophical) and argumentative (persuasive and practical) reasoning. Boethius showed that the dialectical topics provide the more basic logical framework upon which the applied topics of practical argumentation can be built.

Integration of Cicero and Themistius:

Boethius scrutinized the correspondence between the argumentative topics presented by Cicero and the Aristotelian apologetic topics dealt with by Themistius, and showed that both could be explained from an equivalent basis. This provided a fusion of Greek philosophy and Roman rhetoric, and a standard system that was easy for medieval logicians to understand.

affect

De Topicis Differentiis became an indispensable reference for the study of logic and rhetoric in medieval Europe. Medieval scholastic philosophers used the systematized topic theory presented by Boethius as a basis for argument construction in a wide range of areas, including church law, theology, philosophy, and legal oratory. In particular, later medieval thinkers such as Abelard and Thomas Aquinas developed and used the book's theory as a model for organizing controversy and scholarly dialogue.

summary

De Topicis Differentiis is a masterpiece of the early Middle Ages that integrates Aristotelian logic with the Roman rhetorical tradition and summarizes the discovery of arguments (topica) in theoretical and practical terms. This book clarified the "foundational logic" of apologetics and argumentation, and had a profound influence on the Western intellectual tradition that followed.

---